Latest News on Israel & the Jewish World - JNS.orghttp://www.jns.org/latest-articles/Fri, 31 Jul 2015 15:01:21 +0000en-USSite-Server v6.0.0-5012-5012 (http://www.squarespace.com)Did Jonathan Pollard really cause anti-Semitism?AnalysisIsraelOpinionU.S.Rafael Medoff/JNS.orgThu, 30 Jul 2015 18:46:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/29/did-jonathan-pollard-really-cause-anti-semitism5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b93bbee4b0d0f8999a22c3In the days leading up to the July 28 revelation of the U.S. granting
parole to imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, former State Department
counsel Abraham Sofaer charged that Pollard’s actions have provoked
anti-Semitism in America. Sofaer, who was part of the U.S. team that
investigated the Pollard affair in the 1980s, claimed Pollard “created a
terrible situation for American Jews who then obviously [were] all the more
suspected.” The fear that Pollard’s actions would cause anti-Semitism was
also articulated at the time of his arrest by many prominent American Jews,
conservatives and liberals alike. But as it turns out, Jewish fears of
being seen as disloyal are not supported by evidence and were just as
misplaced in the 1980s as they are today, writes historian Rafael Medoff.

Click photo to download. Caption: Esther Pollard walks past a poster of her husband, Jonathan Pollard, before speaking to reporters outside of her Jerusalem home on July 29, the day after it was announced that Jonathan, jailed for nearly 30 years over giving Israel classified information on America, will be released in November. Credit: Flash90.

By Rafael Medoff/JNS.org

Did jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard’s actions provoke anti-Semitism in the United States?

In the days leading up to the July 28 revelation that the U.S. has granted Pollard parole and that he will be released from federal prison on Nov. 20, that charge was made by former State Department counsel Abraham Sofaer. Commenting on then-unconfirmed reports that Pollard would be paroled, Sofaer—who was part of the U.S. team that investigated the Pollard affair in the 1980s—claimed Pollard “created a terrible situation for American Jews who then obviously [were] all the more suspected.”

The fear that Pollard’s actions would cause anti-Semitism was articulated at the time of his arrest by many prominent American Jews, conservatives and liberals alike. Well-known political columnist William Safire wrote that Pollard had encouraged “anti-Semites who charge that Jews everywhere are at best afflicted with dual loyalty and at worst are agents of a vast fifth column.” Henry Siegman, the former director of the American Jewish Congress, charged that the affair had caused “discomfort” to U.S. Jews and left them feeling “compromised.”

Many Israelis, however, saw things differently. Shlomo Avineri, a Hebrew University political science professor who worked as director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry under prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, publicly deplored the “nervousness, insecurity, and even cringing” of U.S. Jews.

“Today, American Jewish leaders by their protestations of over-zealous loyalty to the United States at a moment when no one is really questioning it, are saying that America in the long run is no different from France and Germany,” Avineri wrote in 1987. “When you have to over-identify, there is no other proof needed that you think that your non-Jewish neighbors are looking askance at your Americanism. You are condemned by your own protestations of loyalty and flag-waving.”

Measured by the traditional method—the Anti-Defamation League’s annual tally of anti-Semitic incidents—there is no evidence anti-Semitism increased as a result of the Pollard affair. In fact, in 1986, the year following Pollard’s arrest, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. actually decreased by 7 percent. That figure increased the following year, and each year through 1991, but then in 1992 it decreased again (by 8 percent), before rising again in 1993. It is hard to see how Pollard could have had anything to do with this ebb and flow.

Measured another way, by the appointment of Jews to senior government policymaking positions, there likewise seems to be little evidence to confirm the Pollard-linked fears about Jews in government becoming distrusted. In fact, Jews became even more prominent in Israel-related positions after the Pollard arrest than before it: Daniel Kurtzer, Dennis Ross, Aaron Miller, Richard Haas, Martin Indyk, and others played significant roles in shaping American policy toward Israel throughout the 1990s and beyond. Evidently, their superiors felt they could trust them to faithfully implement U.S. policy—even when it involved tension with Israel—despite the fact that they were Jews.

So much for the dire prediction by American Jewish leaders made to the Jerusalem Post in 1987 that Pollard’s actions “might make it considerably harder for Jews to rise to high positions in the State and Defense Departments.”

Even many years after Pollard’s arrest, such fears lingered. U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Sumner Shapiro, discussing the Pollard case with the Washington Post in 1998, complained, “We work so hard to establish ourselves and to get where we are, [only] to have somebody screw it up.”

But the idea that Pollard had “screwed it up” for other Jews in the U.S. government was more speculation than reality. Political scientist Daniel Elazar, in his analysis of American Jewish responses to the Pollard arrest, was “astounded” by “the level of American Jewish insecurity.” He found that the dual loyalty issue “was raised almost exclusively by Jews,” not by non-Jews. He noted that it was brought especially frequently by Jews in the media, “most of whom were highly assimilated but still apparently needed to demonstrate their ‘bona fides’ as Americans.”

Jewish activists in the U.S. during the Holocaust years encountered similar fears among Jewish leaders. The president of the American Jewish Committee tried to block publication of a Bergson Group newspaper advertisement in 1943, reasoning that sharply worded criticism of the Allies’ Jewish refugee policy “could well bring on pogroms in the U.S.” New York Congressman Sol Bloom sought to have the group’s leader, Peter Bergson, deported on the grounds that “he would eventually provoke sufficient antagonism among the citizens of the United States to cause anti-Semitic pogroms.” Prominent Reform Jewish leader Rabbi Stephen S. Wise went so far as to claim that Bergson was “as great an enemy of the Jews as Hitler, for the reason that his activities could only lead to increased anti-Semitism.”

Rafael Medoff

In the end, Bergson was not deported, the controversial newspaper ad (and nearly 200 others) were published, and the Bergson Group even organized a march by more than 400 rabbis to the White House. Yet no pogroms ensued.

Jewish fears of being seen as disloyal were just as misplaced in the 1940s as they were in the 1980s, and as they are today. Abraham Sofaer’s worries about Pollard are simply not supported by evidence.

Dr. Rafael Medoff is the founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and coeditor of the “Online Encyclopedia of America's Response to the Holocaust.”

]]>The Iran deal’s defining pattern: the more you know, the less you trustAnalysisOpinionU.S.Ben Cohen / JNS.orgThu, 30 Jul 2015 18:45:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/29/the-iran-deals-defining-pattern-the-more-you-know-the-less-you-trust5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b91f52e4b032d3b6f7afccWhen it comes to the deal agreed to a fortnight ago in Vienna over Iran’s
nuclear program, there’s a pattern evolving that should be worrying the
Obama administration: the more you know about it, the less you like it. The
current agreement fails to address painfully large holes in the inspection
regime, and a better deal means getting Iran to accept the “anytime,
anywhere” principle on inspections. A better deal also means getting
absolute clarification on the existence of concealed nuclear facilities, as
well as a candid and honest account of Iran’s past nuclear
activities—chiefly, the military aspects of such work. During this long,
hot summer, the American people should tell those whom they elect that they
are no longer prepared to accept the false choice of “take this deal or
risk another war,” writes JNS.org columnist Ben Cohen.

Click photo to download. Caption: Secretary of State John Kerry addresses reporters in Vienna following the announcement of a nuclear deal with Iran on July 14. Credit: State Department.

By Ben Cohen/JNS.org

When it comes to the deal agreed to a fortnight ago in Vienna over Iran’s nuclear program, there’s a pattern evolving that should be worrying the Obama administration: the more you know about it, the less you like it.

A new opinion poll conducted by the organization I work for, The Israel Project, reveals that an increasing number of Americans are anxious about national security—after the economy, it’s the issue voters take most seriously—and that the Iran deal has exacerbated their concerns. More than 75 percent of Americans say they have learned “some” or “a lot” about the deal. That learning curve has been accompanied by a disapproval curve that is climbing steadily upwards among Democratic voters as well as independents and Republicans.

According to the survey, when assessing the deal based on just their own knowledge, 47 percent of Americans reject it and 44 percent support it. But when presented with a number of talking points both for and against the agreement, an aggregate of 51 percent of respondents say Congress should reject it, while 35 percent favor approving the deal.

Of particular concern for President Barack Obama, on a personal level, is that disapproval of his handling of the negotiations with Iran (52 percent) is 15 percentage points greater than approval (37 percent) of his dealings with the Islamic Republic—by far his worst issue.

As encouraging as this trend is for opponents of the deal, this is no time for them to rest on their laurels. As Congress heads for summer recess, we need to keep our attention focused on preparations for what will happen after Labor Day, when federal legislators will make a historic decision on whether to accept or reject the deal. Our message needs to be that a better deal is possible, because this one is going to result in an Iranian nuclear weapon. It’s also going to help Iran achieve regional dominance, boost its terror proxies from Lebanon to Iraq, directly cause more death and suffering in Syria’s civil war, and straightforwardly assist the Tehran regime in its repression of human rights.

A briefing book I’ve just edited, titled “Surrender in Vienna: Why We Need A Better Nuclear Deal With Iran,” explores these distinct-yet-overlapping issues in greater detail. In his introduction to the collection, Allan Myer, a former senior U.S. defense official who served as president Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter, digs deep into the assumptions that led the Obama administration to tear up the existing playbook that had guided Western interactions with the Tehran regime for more than a decade.

That playbook didn’t contain a fool-proof strategy: uranium enrichment continued at open and concealed sites, sanctions were circumvented, the Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Qods Force were emboldened in carrying out external operations, and we had to listen to a constant stream of anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying invective from the Iranian regime. With the Vienna deal, not only will all that continue, but it’ll get worse. And the reason why that’s the case, Myer says, is because the current administration is driven by a worldview that defies realities on the ground.

For example, the assumption that Iran is a stabilizing power is nonsensical. Even if Tehran could claim the entire support of those 15 percent of Muslims who are Shi’a (and it cannot), it would still be at dangerous loggerheads with both the Sunni Muslim majority, the State of Israel, and non-Muslim minorities in the region—many of whom, like the followers of the gentle Baha’i faith, are viciously persecuted in Iran itself.

So if the Iranian regime can’t win the trust of its neighbors, and in fact increases their suspicions, how are we going to avoid another war—the very war that Obama insists he wants to avoid? Obama’s messaging on Iran was echoed this week by celebrities like Jack Black and Morgan Freeman in one of the most inane videos I’ve ever seen. Do they honestly think the Iran deal is going to be like that final scene in “The Shawshank Redemption,” when Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman embrace in Pacific sunshine after being reunited?

It is unlikely that a war in the Middle East involving American troops will occur while this president remains in the White House. But when Obama’s successor takes over in January 2017, and we’ve had an even greater glimpse of how this deal has legitimized what was once regarded as Iran’s nuclear cheating, the outcome could be very different. Nobody in their right mind would definitively predict that another Middle Eastern conflict involving the U.S. is out of the question over the next 20 years.

What needs to be considered is whether this deal makes such an outcome more likely. Increasingly, Americans are beginning to understand that it does, and that knee-jerk slogans like “No War on Iran” are no guarantee that there won’t be a war with Iran. That is precisely why we need a better deal.

Ben Cohen

To begin with, the deal needs to fix the painfully large holes in the inspection regime. It means getting Iran to accept the “anytime, anywhere” principle on inspections. It means getting absolute clarification on the existence of concealed nuclear facilities. Most importantly, it means a candid and honest account of Iran’s past nuclear activities—chiefly, the military aspects of such work.

Partisans of the current deal will say that under no circumstances would Iran sign such an alternative deal. They conveniently ignore that that regime was six months away from a severe balance of payments crisis when this negotiating round began! The mullahs, therefore, will be reminded of the leverage we have over them only if Congress rejects this deal and recommends a better one.

That can’t happen unless, during this long, hot summer, the American people tell those whom they elect that they are no longer prepared to accept the false choice of “take this deal or risk another war.” Because while this administration may have given up on the goal of peacefully dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, the rest of us can’t afford the same luxury.

]]>ADA disabilities law: a dream worth celebrating, but not yet fully realizedOpinionU.S.JNS.orgThu, 30 Jul 2015 18:43:24 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/30/ada-disabilities-law-a-dream-worth-celebrating-but-not-yet-fully-realized5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55ba6e15e4b041382354145cThough the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its 25th anniversary
should be celebrated, we must acknowledge that the U.S. still has a long
way to go on disability rights. While the ADA exempts private membership
clubs and religious institutions from its mandates, we have a moral and
religious obligation to work with and for people with disabilities in their
fight for basic human dignity. We cannot forget that we are all b’tzelem
Elohim, created in God’s image. In the next 25 years, let’s build upon the
dreams of the ADA and the Torah’s words to create a world where people of
all abilities are afforded full civil rights, writes William Daroff, senior
vice president for public policy at The Jewish Federations of North
America.

Click photo to download. Caption: William Daroff (pictured at left), senior vice president for public policy at The Jewish Federations of North America, speaks to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash., pictured at the podium) during Jewish Disability Advocacy Day in 2013. Credit: The Jewish Federations of North America.

By William Daroff/JNS.org

Quick—when was the last time you thought twice about a ramp outside a public building? How about a wheelchair-accessible bathroom? Do you even blink when you see a closed-captioning enabled TV?

Most of these things are so common today that we barely remember how much has changed in the past 25 years. The progress we have seen for people with disabilities is in large thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law on July 26, 1990, and whose 25th anniversary was recently celebrated at the White House.

Modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA was created as an equal opportunity law for people with physical and intellectual disabilities. The legislation was designed to guarantee that people with disabilities enjoy the same rights as every other American.

Among other things, the ADA and its 2008 amendments prohibit discrimination in all aspects of the employment process and require employers to consider reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals. The legislation also prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation, from retail stores, parks and doctors’ offices, to theaters, government offices, and libraries, requiring the building of accessible entrances and removal of barriers when doing so would not cause undue burden.

We’ve come far since the ADA, and, because of it, millions of Americans can earn a living and participate in everyday activities that would have been impossible a quarter-century ago. But as we celebrate this anniversary, we must remember that the fight for civil rights of people with disabilities, similar that for civil rights of other marginalized communities, is not over.

Here is the reality: One in five Americans has a disability, and less than 20 percent of people with disabilities were employed in 2014, compared with 68 percent of those without disabilities. More astonishing, 31 percent of people with disabilities live below the poverty line.

When was the last time you thought twice about an online job application? What is commonplace for many people is a huge barrier for people with disabilities. Many job applications are online and not created in accessible formats, preventing these individuals from even getting in the door of a possible job.

What’s more, many employers remain reluctant to hire those with disabilities, not understanding that with proper accommodations and training, people with disabilities can take on a multitude of roles and responsibilities. Employers worry about the increased costs of providing accommodations and decreases in productivity when hiring people with disabilities, yet studies,like one conducted in 2014 by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, have shown both of these worries to be unfounded.

Let’s do what we can to make it easier for qualified people of all abilities to get jobs, empowering people with disabilities to make a living wage and learn skill sets that will enable them to provide for themselves and their loved ones.

The issues faced by people with disabilities are not just in the workplace. Schools continue to fail students with disabilities, with the Department of Education finding that only 19 of 50 U.S. states could be designated as “meets requirements” for their special education programs in 2014. Atypical students are often treated unequally, experiencing disproportionate suspension and expulsion rates, punishments that can have long-term negative effects. Even worse, these students can face inhumane disciplinary treatment in the classroom, such as being physically restrained or put in closets, by teachers and aides who do not have adequate training.

Let’s work with schools—both public and private—to ensure students with disabilities are able to access a quality education with the accommodations they need for success.

Even getting to work or to school can sometimes be impossible for individuals with disabilities. Safe, accessible and readily available paratransit options remain inadequate. While the ADA requires public transportation to be accessible, little funding is available, resulting in isolation and barriers to educational opportunities, jobs, health care, and social interactions. Federal grants created to address these needs, such as the Federal Transit Administration’s Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities (Section 5310) program, receive little attention and are insufficiently funded.

Let’s work with our local and federal government officials to identify safe and accessible transportation options for people with disabilities.

Though the ADA and its 25th anniversary should be celebrated, we must acknowledge that people with disabilities, simply put, still do not have full civil rights. While the ADA exempts private membership clubs and religious institutions from its mandates, we have a moral and religious obligation to work with and for people with disabilities in their fight for basic human dignity.

William Daroff

We cannot forget that we are all b’tzelem Elohim, created in God’s image. When Moses, a man with a speech impediment, did not believe he could lead the Jews out of Egypt because of his disability, God asked him, “Who do you think gave you that mouth?” In the next 25 years, let’s build upon the dreams of the ADA and the Torah’s words to create a world where people of all abilities are afforded full civil rights.

William Daroff is the senior vice president for public policy and director of the Washington office of The Jewish Federations of North America.

]]>Spotlight on Lincoln’s Jewish ties part of 16th president’s renaissanceJNS.orgThu, 30 Jul 2015 18:00:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/31/spotlight-on-lincolns-jewish-ties-part-of-16th-presidents-renaissance5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55bb8197e4b005d28bb5adf0At a time when America’s heroes are dwindling, filmmakers and historians
are turning to Abraham Lincoln for inspiration. Our 16th president inspired
“Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film examining how his political acumen
helped him get Congress to pass the 13th Amendment. “Abraham Lincoln:
Vampire Hunter” imagines him as a slayer of slaveholding Southern vampires.
But Lincoln’s relationship with Jews, a lesser-known story, is the
inspiration for a groundbreaking exhibit, “With Firmness in the Right:
Lincoln and the Jews,” that opens Monday at the Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. “This is not the
stories you’ve heard about Lincoln from textbooks. It opens up a whole new
world of another aspect of Lincoln’s life,” said Carla Knorowski, CEO of
the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.

Click photo to download. Caption: The cover of “Lincoln and the Jews: A History,” the basis for the “With Firmness in the Right: Lincoln and the Jews” museum exhibit. Credit: Thomas Dunne Books.

At a time when America’s heroes are dwindling, filmmakers and historians are among those turning to Abraham Lincoln for inspiration.

Our 16th president inspired “Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film examining how his political acumen helped him get Congress to pass the 13th Amendment. “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” imagines “The Great Emancipator” as a slayer of slaveholding Southern vampires.

But Lincoln’s relationship with Jews, a lesser-known story, is the inspiration for a groundbreaking exhibit, “With Firmness in the Right: Lincoln and the Jews,” that opens Monday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill. Based on the book “Lincoln and the Jews: A History,” by Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin Shapell, the exhibit opened at the New York Historical Society earlier this year.

“This is not the stories you’ve heard about Lincoln from textbooks. It opens up a whole new world of another aspect of Lincoln’s life,” said Carla Knorowski, CEO of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.

Considering that Lincoln grew up at a time of anti-Semitism, many people may be surprised to learn that he was deeply committed to religious pluralism and had more Jewish friends and acquaintances than any president before him. In 1809, the year of Lincoln’s birth, barely 3,000 Jews lived in America. By 1865, the year of Lincoln’s assassination, that number had increased to 150,000.

The exhibit includes a series of letters between Lincoln and Abraham Jonas, a Jewish lawyer from Quincy, Ill., who was instrumental in Lincoln’s political rise. In a friendship that spanned just more than two decades, Jonas was one of the first to support Lincoln’s candidacy for president and urged the Republican Party to woo political outsiders like the “liberal and freethinking Germans” and “Israelites.”

In 1861, Lincoln rewarded Jonas’s contributions with the plum political appointment of Postmaster of Quincy. But perhaps the greatest testament to their friendship was Lincoln’s handwritten order in May 1864 to allow one of Jonas’s sons, Charles, then a Confederate POW, “a parole of three weeks to visit his dying father.”

Lincoln’s fundamental sense of fairness distinguished him throughout his political career. Evidence of this trait appears in many of the documents, photographs, letters, bibles, and other artifacts assembled for the “With Firmness in the Right” exhibit. The items are drawn from a variety of sources, including the Shapell Manuscript Foundation, the Chicago Historical Society, Brown University, and the Library of Congress. Some of them are being displayed publicly for the first time.

The exhibit includes a tracing of Lincoln’s own feet and highlights his close relationship with his eccentric foot doctor, the British-born Dr. Issachar Zacharie, who is buried in London’s Highgate Cemetery. In 1863, The New York World reported that the doctor “enjoyed Mr. Lincoln’s confidence more than any other private individual.”

The president even sent Zacharie on peace and intelligence missions to the South during the Civil War. Lincoln had just appointed General Nathaniel P.Banks to replace the anti-Semitic Benjamin F. Butler in the Gulf. With Jewish connections in New Orleans, Zacharie was the ideal choice to help repair relations with the area’s 2,000 Jews. Lincoln urged Banks to make somewhat mysterious use of Zacharie’s skills, saying, “I think he might be of service to you, first in his peculiar profession, and, secondly, as a means of access to his countrymen, who are quite numerous in some of the localities you will probably visit.”

Lincoln made bold decisions that transformed Jews from outsiders to insiders in American society. One significant example is Lincoln’s overturning of Ulysses Grant’s General Orders No. 11 (December 1862) that expelled Jews “as a class” from Union-controlled territory (including parts of southern Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi). Born out of frustration with some Jewish cotton smugglers, Grant’s edict qualified as “the most blatant state-sanctioned act of anti-Semitism in American history,” according to the “Lincoln and the Jews” book.

Daniel Stowell, the Lincoln Presidential Library’s curator for the exhibit, agrees that Lincoln’s countermand of Grant’s order shows how the president stood up to anti-Semitic generals.

“Lincoln gave wide latitude to generals that were succeeding, and Grant was one of them,” Stowell said. “Lincoln would have had no trouble if Grant said, ‘Okay, all peddlers need to leave the area,’ but Lincoln was quoted as saying he did not like condemning a whole group because of a few sinners.”

In September 1862, Lincoln took another bold action, appointing Rabbi Jacob Frankel of Philadelphia as the U.S. military’s first Jewish chaplain. The document formalizing that appointment is included in the Illinois exhibit. At that time, there were 7,000 Jews in the Union Army.

“Many Jews did feel like second-class citizens, especially in the decades prior to the Civil War, but Lincoln establishes this sense that all sorts of people should be treated as equals. The Emancipation Proclamation was all about that idea,” said Stowell.

Regarding renewed interest in Lincoln—the man and the politician—Sarna speculates that, at a time when many Americans are disaffected by the political process, Lincoln’s mastery of politics is admired.

“There may be a certain nostalgia toward a president who was ‘Honest Abe.’ It’s really extraordinary when you see the extent to which he was able to live his values and accomplish so many things,” said Sarna.

In the days after Lincoln’s assassination, rabbis compared the anti-slavery president to the greatest of biblical heroes from the patriarch Abraham to the prophet Moses. When some of our heroes today have disappointed us, it’s comforting to know we still have Lincoln.

Jennifer Brody is a former associate editor at JUF News and a freelance writer living in Chicago.

]]>Christian funding provides lifeline to Jewish schools in former Soviet UnionChristianFeaturesJewish LifeWorldJNS.orgThu, 30 Jul 2015 17:44:08 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/30/christian-funding-provides-lifeline-to-jewish-schools-in-former-soviet-union5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55ba5edee4b0aa2fc6f784fcThe Soviet Union may have dissolved in 1991, but many Jewish families are
still struggling to emerge from the regime’s seven decades of antipathy
towards their heritage. For some, their Jewish identity amounts to little
more than a Jewish name and the bigotry that it attracts. World ORT’s
network of Jewish schools in the former Soviet Union is addressing that
issue—with the support of funding from the International Fellowship of
Christians and Jews. “Since 1880, it has been our organization’s mission to
enable Jewish people to lift themselves out of poverty and dependency and
into a brighter, self-sufficient existence,” said World ORT Director
General and CEO Shmuel Sisso. “For most of those 135 years the kind of
generosity that has been extended to us by the Christian community would
have been unimaginable. This friendship is a beacon of hope at a time when
our people need it so much.”

Click photo to download. Caption: Ratibor, the son of Tatiana Elokhina, is pictured at a World ORT school in the former Soviet Union. Credit: Courtesy World ORT.

By Stefan Bialoguski/JNS.org

The Soviet Union may have dissolved in 1991, but many Jewish families are still struggling to emerge from the regime’s seven decades of antipathy towards their heritage. For some, their Jewish identity amounts to little more than a Jewish name and steel in the soul, tempered by the bigotry which that attracts.

While anti-Semitism is by no means universal in the region, it is not uncommon either and its effect can be intimidating—and, in Tatiana Elokhina’s case, heartbreaking.

“My family was assimilated and I did not pay much importance to the fact I was Jewish,” said Tatiana, who lives in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. “But when my husband and I quarreled I was always subjected to insults related to my Jewish roots. I couldn’t put up with the harsh treatment given to me and my child.”

Tatiana got a divorce and, with her son, Ratibor, started a new life with a new partner. She had a daughter, Arina, but again found herself subjected to anti-Semitic abuse and filing for divorce.

Soon after, there were riots that led to the ouster of Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiev, and an upsurge in anti-Semitism. Anti-government protesters placed a banner on the fence of the presidential offices declaring that there was “no place for dirty Jews” in the country and the city’s synagogue was firebombed.

“Offensive and threatening graffiti appeared on people’s houses and many of my friends warned me that it could be dangerous to send my children to a Jewish school. But two unfortunate marriages had made me think about my origin—I had no reason to be ashamed! I had a strong desire to tell my children about their Jewish roots and to accustom them to Jewish traditions,” Tatiana said.

She found places for her children at the city’s ORT Pri Etz Chaim Jewish School after hearing good things about it from friends who had sent their children there. Like the other 17 schools in World ORT’s network in the former Soviet Union, Pri Etz Chaim offers a comprehensive education with an emphasis on science and technology and non-denominational Jewish studies. For Tatiana, coming from an assimilated background and working long hours as a market stallholder, the ORT school is connecting her children to their roots and equipping them for well-paid careers locally, or, if they choose, in Israel.

But the hope they and others in the ORT Pri Etz Chaim community now have might not have been possible without the support of Christians on the other side of the world.

Since 2008, when traditional sources of funding for social needs dried up, it has been the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) that has stepped in, enabling World ORT’s schools to continue operating as Jewish institutions.

“Since 1880, it has been our organization’s mission to enable Jewish people to lift themselves out of poverty and dependency and into a brighter, self-sufficient existence,” said World ORT Director General and CEO Shmuel Sisso. “For most of those 135 years the kind of generosity that has been extended to us by the Christian community would have been unimaginable. This friendship is a beacon of hope at a time when our people need it so much.”

Thanks to the Fellowship, World ORT’s schools have been able to maintain subsidized bus services, hot lunches, and security for their students. The schools represent the only educational network in the region that caters to families on the margins of the Jewish community, including those who are eligible to make aliyah under the Law of Return but would not be recognized as Jewish according to halacha (Jewish law).

Organizing food may seem like a distraction for an organization that is providing high-tech equipment, teacher training, and pedagogic programs. But poverty, disability, and anti-social working hours mean that many parents would find it difficult—if not impossible—to prepare meals for their children, let alone meals nutritious and satisfying enough to keep them going through the long days made necessary by World ORT’s enhancement of the national curricula with STEM and Jewish studies. As studies by the American Psychological Association have shown, the resulting hunger could lead to depression, anxiety, and withdrawal, all of which are obstructions to a child trying to focus on learning. Further, resulting behavioral problems could lead to disruptions in class and thereby negatively affect the education of well-fed students.

Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union can be small and fragmented; there is often no communal center of gravity where an ORT school could be situated to ensure good accessibility to most people. Stressed transportation systems, severe weather, and the ever-present threat of crime and anti-Semitism mean that crossing town to get to school can be a lengthy and risky endeavor. The Fellowship’s funding has been keeping the wheels on the buses turning round, ensuring safe access for Jews regardless of which suburb they live in.

One does not need to look as far as the former Soviet Union to recognize the importance of security. The resurgence in anti-Semitism across Europe has seen CCTV cameras, high walls, guards, and other measures introduced at Jewish schools and other communal buildings. But in the United Kingdom, France, and other countries, government funding and wealthy local donors have managed to meet many security needs. World ORT’s schools further to the east do not have that luxury, and that’s where the Fellowship’s funding comes in.

“I’ve never doubted their safety at ORT Pri Etz Chaim,” said Tatiana. “Thanks to the support of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, there is an effective security system in place. It’s perhaps the safest school in the city! It’s not easy raising children alone; I work hard from morning ’til night without holidays and weekends as a market stallholder. When I get home I may be tired but I feel well knowing that my children have been getting a good education. And I don’t need to worry about whether my children are hungry—I know that they are always well-fed with tasty, home-style, kosher food… My children had no luck with fathers, but the care we have received from the Fellowship and ORT has given our family a future.”

]]>Class in session: 5 questions for Israeli Education Minister Naftali BennettEducationIsraelFeaturesJNS.orgWed, 29 Jul 2015 18:27:30 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/29/class-in-session-5-questions-for-israeli-education-minister-naftali-bennett5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b91821e4b0e176420dd676In April, Israel’s educational system, which is essentially charged with
shaping the country’s future, was handed over to Member of Knesset Naftali
Bennett, the chairman of the Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) political
party. Israeli schools have been accused of overcrowding, among other
predicaments. A teachers’ strike in Jerusalem earlier this summer called on
the government to evaluate the situation and offer answers before the start
of the Sept. 1 school year. What is Israel’s plan to deal with these
challenges and to improve schooling in the Jewish state? Education Minister
Bennett gives his take in an exclusive interview with JNS.org.

Click photo to download. Caption: Israeli Minister of Education Naftali Bennett speaks during a visit to a bible study seminar at the Herzog College in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Alon Shvut on July 20, 2015. Credit: Gershon Elinson/Flash90.

***Editor's note: The following interview is the first story in our 2015 Back to School special section. The remaining articles in the section will be published on Tuesday, Aug. 4.

By Maayan Jaffe/JNS.org

In April, Israel’s educational system, which is essentially charged with shaping the country’s future, was handed over to Member of Knesset Naftali Bennett. The chairman of the Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) political party, Bennett now has big plans for Israel’s schools in his new ministerial position.

The Jewish Home platform states, “Our most urgent task is to create a Jewish-Zionist educational unit to operate in the State of Israel’s public school system. … HaBayit HaYehudi will spearhead a nationalist plan to promote Jewish and Zionist identity among all students from grade 1 through grade 12.”

Ultimately, the Israel of tomorrow may very well depend on the Jewish state’s educational system. In 2012, Israel was ranked the second-most educated country in the world by the 34-member nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). According to the OECD’s 2011 “Education at a Glance” report, 78 percent of the money invested in education in Israel is taken directly from public funds, and 45 percent of Israelis have a university or college diploma.

Yet Israel’s educational system has been accused of overcrowding, among other predicaments. A teachers’ strike in Jerusalem earlier this summer called on the government to evaluate the situation and offer answers before the start of the Sept. 1 school year.

Education Minister Bennett took some time off from his busy schedule to talk shop in the following exclusive interview with JNS.org.

JNS: Israel’s educational system has come under some heat as of late. Why is the system so complicated?

Naftali Bennett: “Israel’s education system is one of the most sophisticated and versatile in the world. We are challenged by a diverse population and work hard to meet the needs of all of the country’s students, whether they are Jewish or Arab, secular or religious.”

As Minister of Education, what are your core focuses?

“I believe we have work to do to improve and adapt to the changes in society. One area I am focused on is preschool. I passed a reform that will lead to the hiring of an additional teacher’s assistant in every preschool in Israel, starting in September. Young children need to get a strong start in their education, and this is one of the ways to do it.

“Another focus for me is getting more high school students to take the five-point matriculation exam in math. These are the people who will be the engine of our economy in industry, hi-tech, medicine and other business sectors. We have seen a steady decline in the numbers in recent years, and I am determined to increase it.”

Do you think the Diaspora can play a role in supporting education in Israel?

“We have many joint ventures with the Diaspora in the field of education. It is important that we continue to work together to learn from one another. We are one people and it is important for Israeli schoolchildren to engage and learn about their counterparts in the Diaspora, and for Jewish schoolchildren in the Diaspora to be connected to Israel and their Israeli counterparts.”

In July, 221 new olim (immigrants to Israel) arrived from the United States, including more than 90 children. What does Israel do to help new immigrant students acclimate to Israel and thrive there?

“The schools work with new olim students to facilitate a swift and easy transition into the Israeli school system and to ensure that they receive the necessary assistance when it comes to tests and the different courses.”

Should we be optimistic about the future of education in Israel?

“I am optimistic about the future of Israel and the future of our education system. Education is the backbone of our people, and has been that way since our founding as a nation thousands of years ago. We are the people of the book and, as Minister of Education, I will continue to invest in ensuring that our children have the tools and skills needed for Israel to remain a key player on the global economic and cultural stage.”

]]>The Iran deal does New YorkFeaturesNewsU.S.Jeffrey Barken / JNS.orgWed, 29 Jul 2015 14:35:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/29/the-iran-deal-does-new-york5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b8dd9ee4b00da00a404ab5The July 14 announcement of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers
has drawn much public criticism, praise, and punditry—in the Jewish
community and beyond—and will continue to do so over the course of the
ongoing 60-day period for the U.S. Congress to review the agreement. But
which so-called “regular citizens” are taking the time to actually read the
deal? That question is arguably most pressing in the New York City
metropolitan area, home to more Jews than any region of its kind
nationwide. Not surprisingly, then, the “Big Apple” has been the epicenter
of both education and advocacy, including events ranging from discussions
to protests, in the weeks since the Iran deal was reached.

Click photo to download. Caption: Recently, the subject of much debate in New York has been the decision facing the state's Jewish U.S. senator, Chuck Schumer (pictured in center), on the Iran nuclear deal. Will Schumer defy President Barack Obama (pictured at right) and be one of the 13 Democratic votes in the Senate needed to override the president's veto of potential Congressional rejection of the Iran deal? Credit: Pete Souza/White House.

By Jeffrey F. Barken/JNS.org

The July 14 announcement of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers has drawn much public criticism, praise, and punditry—in the Jewish community and beyond—and will continue to do so over the course of the ongoing 60-day period for the U.S. Congress to review the agreement. But which so-called “regular citizens” are taking the time to actually read the deal? (Its full text, by the way, can be accessed here.)

That question is arguably most pressing in the New York City metropolitan area, home to more Jews than any region of its kind nationwide. Not surprisingly, then, the “Big Apple” has been the epicenter of both education and advocacy, including events ranging from discussions to protests, in the weeks since the Iran deal was reached.

“Our government is on the verge of making a terrible mistake,” said Josh Block—president and CEO of The Israel Project (TIP), an organization whose stated mission is “informing the media and public conversation about Israel and the Middle East”—during an educational event hosted at New York’s Lincoln Square Synagogue on June 21.

Before Block’s address listed the weaknesses and shortcomings of the Iran deal, a leaflet distributed to attendees by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) listed six consequences of a bad deal with Iran, adding that “Congress must oppose the proposed deal.” According to the leaflet, the deal signed this month in Vienna will: legitimize Iran as a nuclear threshold state; raise the prospect of war; spur a nuclear arms race; increase Iranian support of terrorism; strengthen the Iranian regime; and undermine and threaten regional allies.

Central to those bullets is a concern that the U.S. is abandoning more than 20 years of focused policy initiatives carefully devised to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Similarly, the AIPAC flier asserted that the unprecedented negotiations with Tehran, the infamous state sponsor of terrorism, “call into question America’s global leadership.” Since there is no provision in the deal effectively dismantling Iran’s current nuclear infrastructure, critics argue that American security guarantees to its allies are now defunct. They forecast that the deal’s $150 billion in sanctions relief for Iran will embolden the regime’s terrorist activities and further destabilize the region, and that a nuclear Iran means an existential threat to Israel.

“The talks were extended at every deadline, because desperation cannot be exhausted,” said Block, arguing that Western diplomats were duped by Iran, surrendering their significant advantage in the form of punishing sanctions, and ultimately succumbing to the ambition to make a historic deal at any price.

At the core of Block’s argument lies an assessment that the anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic threats delivered regularly by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Iranian officials should be taken seriously.

“We’re told the ayatollah’s threats are for domestic consumption, but they appear in English on Twitter, and you can’t get Twitter in Iran,” Block said, suggesting that proponents of the nuclear deal see only what they want to see and are too trusting of the Iranians, who should be considered their nemesis.

“War is not the alternative,” Block concluded, refuting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s oft-repeated assertion. “A better deal is.”

Block’s presentation “covered the points that worry all the international community,” Eduardo Torres Núñez, a former advisor to Mexico’s federal legislature, told JNS.org.

“Nonetheless, it was not the space for sharing thoughts or to even hear critics that could define new directions,” he added, lamenting that the program fell short of being a forum for dialogue about the deal.

Indeed, Block only got the chance to entertain three questions from the crowd before a loud group of attendees interrupted decorum, urging members of the audience to join them in a protest against the deal that would take place the next day in New York’s Times Square.

“Now, more than ever, patience is needed for the next months, at least to keep the deal alive,” Núñez said, dismissing the July 22 protest—which would eventually draw an estimated 10,000 participants—as premature and perhaps misguided. Still, he acknowledged that “security is not a game” and is critical of the deal, noting, “Too many concessions were offered. The resilience shown by Iran demonstrates that they are not willing to lose any power.”

At the same time, while Núñez is conscious that the world powers who negotiated the deal are taking many risks, he remains optimistic and has faith in diplomacy.

“Through all the long [negotiating] sessions [with Iran], it seems the U.N. got what it wanted, a calibrated framework and a permanent inspection by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency),” he said. (But rather than being “anytime, anywhere,” inspections of the nuclear program will be accompanied by 24 days of advance notice for Iran, to the dismay of the deal’s critics.)

On the same day as the TIP event, President Barack Obama himself was in New York to defend the nuclear deal on the set of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

“I really want people to pay attention to this issue, learn about it, and then contact your elected representatives and express your opinion,” Obama said. “This is an example of where we have a huge issue of war and peace. Either we stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon through diplomacy or potentially we have a military option. You’ve got a bunch of talking heads and pundits and folks who are not going to be making sacrifices, if in fact you end up in a conflict, who are reprising some of the same positions that we saw during the Iraq war, and not asking tough questions. If they’re not hearing from citizens, then we end up making bad choices.”

Members of Congress, in fact, are sure to continuously hear from their constituents about the Iran deal during the 60-day review period. Particularly in New York, the decision facing the state’s Jewish U.S. senator, Chuck Schumer—seen as a key Democratic vote who could help swing the deal’s fate in either direction in the Senate—has already been the subject of much debate. With 54 Republicans serving in the Senate, 13 Democratic votes against the deal are needed to override Obama’s veto of a potential Congressional rejection of the agreement. For now, the specifics of Schumer’s pulse on the issue are unknown, as are many still-unfolding aspects of the Iran saga.

]]>Hope, lost and found, for Ukraine’s JewsOpinionWorldJewish LifeJNS.orgWed, 29 Jul 2015 14:32:17 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/29/hope-lost-and-found-for-ukraines-jews5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b8e1fae4b0b3ab4e2191cd“Start worrying. Details to follow.” It’s not just the irreverent punch
line of a joke about the content of a Jewish telegram. It is also the only
way Etta Gross Zimmerman can describe the situation in Ukraine, a country
suffering from violent conflict, wide-ranging economic collapse, and a
humanitarian crisis of untold proportions. Zimmerman experienced a taste of
this crisis during her most recent trip to the beleaguered Eastern European
nation together with a group of Jewish leaders, and reflects on the journey
in an op-ed for JNS.org.

Click photo to download. Caption: A plea for help in conflict-ravaged Ukraine. Credit: Courtesy JDC.

By Etta Gross Zimmerman/JNS.org

“Start worrying. Details to follow.”

It’s not just the irreverent punch line of a joke about the content of a Jewish telegram. It is also the only way I can describe the situation in Ukraine, a country suffering from violent conflict, wide-ranging economic collapse, and a humanitarian crisis of untold proportions.

I experienced a taste of this crisis during my most recent trip to the beleaguered Eastern European nation together with a group of passionate Jewish leaders on behalf of the Jewish Federations of North America.

Like the others on the trip, I was transported thousands of miles from my safe life in the U.S. to Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, located 100 miles west of the separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

It was there that we got to understand better the realities that have beset Ukraine over the last year and a half. We saw firsthand how the Euromaidan clashes, Crimean annexation, financial chaos, and protracted violence in eastern Ukraine has impacted a population of people who had faced major socio-economic challenges even before this crisis began.

What was most striking was the presence of many of the 1.3 million Ukrainians who have become displaced within the country’s borders. Commonly referred to as Internally Displaced People or IDPs, they are attempting desperately to forge new lives is strange cities far from their former lives. There has been scant news on their specific suffering, especially with a world refugee crisis reaching an unprecedented 60 million people this year. But their desperate need for housing, medical care, food, and community connections is acute.

When I traveled last summer with a small group of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) board members to the region, we hoped that the IDPs we met would be able to resettle and find a more secure life, perhaps even in Israel. At the time, we could not imagine their displaced status would continue, or that fighting and insecurity would escalate. And we did not think for a moment that when we returned this year, we would find even more displaced people.

But as we visited the displaced at Dnepropetrovsk’s Beit Baruch senior center and in temporary housing facilities in the city, we found pervasive sadness, vacant stares, and doubts for the future. Hearing about the journey made by an educated young couple who fled Lugansk last August with their two little boys was surreal. To ensure their children’s safe passage amid the chaos, they had to forgo additional luggage so that each parent could hold onto one of their son’s hands along the way. They currently reside in small, but meticulously kept apartment and survive on meager salaries from unreliable jobs.

To say they are in the middle of a perfect humanitarian storm would be an understatement. Rampant inflation, devalued currency, and an inadequate or nonexistent social safety net have wreaked havoc on both those who fled the separatist-controlled regions and those who remain throughout Ukraine.

In light of these circumstances, many Jews are making use of the critically important aliyah services provided by the Jewish Agency’s Mayak Center. But for the vast majority, leaving is not an option. And the reasons are many: from not wanting to leave their lives and families behind, to protecting property, to the debilitation brought on by the sheer trauma and disbelief of the circumstances.

Thankfully for those in Dnepropetrovsk, Chabad’s Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, the local chief rabbi, has set the tone for community cooperation at this challenging time and works closely with all the major Jewish groups engaged in efforts to help the Jews of his city and throughout Ukraine. The air of positivity he has fostered has elevated not just Jews in need, but also the local professionals providing services to the needy and visitors, like us, demonstrating solidarity with those Jews impacted by the humanitarian crisis.

When the Soviet Union fell more than 20 years ago, a vast system of JDC Hesed social welfare centers and Jewish Community Centers were established. These great institutions worked hard to infuse a sense of communal independence, philanthropic spirit, and local Jewish creativity. Today, that struggle has paid off: Hesed and JCC professionals and the volunteers are demonstrating bravery, dedication, and contribute positively to their respective communities.

Jewish professionals, also suffering amid the continued crisis, work ceaselessly around the clock to ensure that each and every Jew, be they displaced or remaining in the conflict zone, are cared for. They treat every person with compassion and dignity, even when they themselves are stretched, weary, and worried for their own family members and friends.

And then there are those volunteers resoundingly active inside and out of the separatist-controlled zones. Often, they are risking their own safety to help the helpless. Consider Victor from Slavyansk, who delivered food packages on his bike to the elderly who could not leave home. In his late 70s, and not Jewish, he did what he could in the most trying circumstances.

Victor is not alone in his awe-inspiring dedication. In fact, volunteerism that has become a mainstay of Jewish communities throughout Ukraine, the silver lining to this dire situation, and evidence of a home-grown sense of “arevut”—mutual responsibility among Jews.

That development can be found in the JDC’s Metsudah Leadership Program, which builds cohorts of volunteer Jewish leaders addressing social challenges. Metsudah’s more than 250 alumni, deployed throughout Ukraine, are setting a tone of dedication that uplifts their downtrodden communities.

Another bright spot is the welcoming environment provided by the Jews of Zaporozhe, who have been instrumental in caring for displaced Jews and ensuring that they have a Jewish community to turn to at their time of need. During a visit to this southeastern Ukrainian city, I met a severely ill child who was living with her grandmother and mother. This tiny, beleaguered family of women are lacking a permanent home, miss their lives back in the east, and now rely on support from strangers. But they have nowhere to turn.

We—the Jewish community—are their only source of support. In fact, since the crisis began, the response to the humanitarian plight has coalesced around a stalwart group of aid groups, concerned Jews advocates and activists, and local Ukrainian Jewish organizations. The Jewish Federations, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the Conference on Jewish Materials Claims Against Germany, World Jewish Relief, Chabad, Jewish foundations, and individual supporters have been at the forefront of these efforts.

It is indeed difficult to find hope amid these scenes of terrible struggle, and one fears that brighter tomorrows are ever more allusive. But sometimes fate takes a hand and reminds you of the indomitable nature of the Jewish spirit in the face of adversity.

Etta Gross Zimmerman

Those who have traveled with me know that a tired piano and a Yiddish melody can set me off singing and dancing with unbridled enthusiasm. During our visit to Ukraine, I was treated to such a song by eight retired female engineers who gather together weekly to socialize with other Jewish seniors at a program made possible by Jewish philanthropists from North America. The song—written for me and those I was traveling with—ended by noting that their opportunity to socialize together was “medicine for their souls.”

In that poignant moment, despite my worries for the future of Ukraine’s Jews, I was reminded that we can accomplish anything if we put our minds to it.

And for Ukraine’s Jews today, a little bit of chutzpah in the face of the odds, a warm hug, and a place to call home can go a long way.

Etta Gross Zimmerman, who resides in Florida with her husband and daughter, is a senior member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) board, a Wexner Heritage Program alumnus, and vice chair of the board of the South Palm Beach Jewish Federation.

]]>Israel: the Jewish melting potAliyah AnnotatedIsraelOpinionJNS.orgWed, 29 Jul 2015 13:58:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/29/israel-the-jewish-melting-pot5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b8e747e4b0e7109cdcb986In only her second week in Israel, Eliana Rudee—author of the new "Aliyah
Annotated" column for JNS.org—found a deeper understanding of how important
unity and the land of Israel are to the Jewish people. After her
experiences in ulpan (Hebrew-language immersion school) and at the Western
Wall, Rudee writes that she feels more than ever like a part of that unity
and of continuing the Jewish future in Israel and beyond. Jews are
strongest, she writes, when they sing united and speak in one common
voice—the language of Jewish peoplehood.

By Eliana Rudee/JNS.org

The joyous, momentous welcoming ceremony for the new immigrants at Ben Gurion Airport was only the beginning of my aliyah day. We stayed at the airport for five hours, receiving our immigration card, Israeli ID number, and other bureaucratic treats that entitle us to immigration benefits. We reunited with our suitcases and gathered into groups based on our respective destinations. Those who were going to ulpan—a five-month Hebrew class for five hours a day, five days a week—gathered onto a bus headed to sign up for the course and unpack. After unpacking, meeting new people, and unpacking some more, the sun set over the hills of Jerusalem.

The next day, I took a Hebrew test that placed me into the highest level of Aleph, meaning I know some Hebrew, but don’t really know Hebrew. In the ulpan, there are people from the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Russia, Ukraine, Scotland, Italy, and even India! Oftentimes, our most common language is Hebrew. But what unites us at ulpan is not only that we have come to learn Hebrew, but also that we are all living in Israel, leaving behind the many countries of the Diaspora, and returning to our Jewish roots in Israel. Many of us do not have family in Israel, but we feel that it is already our home because of our deep historical and spiritual ties to the land and the Israelis who already treat us as family.

Click photo to download. Caption: In Israel, Eliana Rudee (center) is pictured with her father (far left), grandmother, mother, and a friend who also made aliyah. Credit: Christa Lilly.

On Shabbat, I went to the Western Wall (or Kotel). Many Jews—secular, religious, and everything in between—go to the Kotel on Friday nights. Israeli soldiers lead Jewish songs and dance hand-in-hand, pulling children into their circles. I witnessed a group of girls dancing and singing a song that has become a theme in my own Jewish journey. The song is Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s song, “Kol Ha’Olam Kulo.” It means, “The whole entire world is a very narrow bridge, and the essence of being is to have no fear at all.”

As a child, I joyfully sang this song at Jewish summer camp with all my new friends. As a teenager, I meaningfully sang this song at the Western Wall as I held hands and danced with Israeli soldiers. Last year, I nervously sang this song in a bomb shelter, as Hamas’s rockets rained on Israel. And then, just six months ago, I mournfully sang this song in the crematorium of the former Majdanek Death Camp in Poland.

And now, here I was at the Western Wall yet again, this time as an Israeli, watching a group of girls joyfully sing this song together, like I had at summer camp. The group had just met each other and formed a circle—the Americans sang the song in English, then the Argentinians sang in Spanish, then the Brazilians in Portuguese, and so on, until they all began to sing together in Hebrew, forming the loudest and most passionate rendition of the song, to which everyone knew the lyrics. Like my ulpan, these girls were from all over, but the Hebrew song united them. Such are the Jews—divided by geography, but united by the Western Wall, Shabbat, and their common Jewish peoplehood. This is also representative of Israel, a land where Jews from around the world come together to unapologetically be who they are.

But it hasn’t always been this way. On the Ninth of Av—which fell on July 25 this year, but was observed a day later due to the timing of Shabbat—Jews mark the day that both Jewish Temples were destroyed, 656 years apart. Tisha B’Av, as it is called, is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, when Jews mourn the destructions and refrain from any pleasantries, including eating, drinking, and even greeting each other. This week, I learned that back in the time when the Temples were destroyed, Israel was not as pleasant as it is today. For one thing, the external environments were hostile. Around the time of the first destruction, in 586 B.C.E., the Babylonians destroyed Judah and took power. Then, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E., and outsiders again sieged the city of Jerusalem. The Romans persecuted the Jews, among others, and our Temple was no more. The remnants included the Western Wall, which is a segment of the walls surrounding the Temple Mount. With the Temples and city destroyed, Jews did not have the opportunity to dance and celebrate together as we do now.

Another reason why Israel is different is because of the diverse Diaspora Jews that make up the community. Back in the times of the Temples, the Jews were not as diverse, but they were incredibly divided. In fact, that is one of the reasons why the first Temple is said to have been destroyed—the Babylonians saw that there was internal strife and attacked because our internal divisions weakened us.

But now, the Jewish people unite in many ways, especially in the land of Israel. My diverse ulpan and my experience at the Kotel both illustrate that even further. Yet we still have much uniting to do. The Jewish community is not fully united by one religious observance, political belief, or geographical region. Although diversity is certainly not a bad thing, disunity could be harmful. After all, the more divisiveness, the more we are vulnerable inside and out.

Eliana Rudee

By learning about Tisha B’av, I have come to understand why so many nations want to destroy Israel. It’s because Israel represents the place where Jews unite. In Israel, a haredi man walking down the street, clad in black from head to toe, shares something distinctive with a girl on the same street, dressed in jean shorts and a tank top. Each of them is united by Israel and by their Jewish heritage, and if you take Israel out of that equation, there is more that separates them than unites them. And that separation could mean not only the destruction of the land of Israel, but Jews as a people.

In only my second week here, I found a deeper understanding of how important unity and the land of Israel are to the Jewish people, and now, more than ever before, I feel like a part of that unity and continuing the Jewish future in Israel and beyond. As I recall the girls singing at the Kotel, I realize that Jews are strongest when they sing united, in one common voice—the language of Jewish peoplehood.

L’hitraot, until next week,

Israel Girl

Eliana Rudee is a fellow with the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought and the author of the new “Aliyah Annotated” column for JNS.org. She is a graduate of Scripps College, where she studied International Relations and Jewish Studies. She was published in USA Today and Forbes after writing about her experiences in Israel last summer. Follow her aliyah column on JNS.org, Facebook, and Instagram.

]]>When shul talk goes nuclear: Should pulpit rabbis publicly discuss Iran?FeaturesJewish LifeU.S.Sean Savage/JNS.orgMon, 27 Jul 2015 12:57:55 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/27/when-shul-talk-goes-nuclear-should-pulpit-rabbis-publicly-discuss-iran5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b6282fe4b0eeee5d69201fAs the U.S. Congress debates whether or not to support the Iran nuclear
deal, the same discussion is taking place in local Jewish communities
around the country, where many Jews will inevitably look to their
congregational rabbis for guidance on how they should view an agreement
that many are criticizing for endangering the security of their brethren in
Israel. But pulpit rabbis are not members of Congress, and synagogues are
not political advocacy organizations. So how and when is it appropriate for
them to comment publicly on the Iran issue? JNS.org spoke with rabbis
across the denominational spectrum to get a sense of what they consider to
be the appropriate balance to strike.

Click photo to download. Caption: At left, the Iran nuclear program's heavy-water reactor at Arak, and at right, a synagogue bimah (platform on which the Torah is read). Credit: Nanking2012 and SMU Constitutional and Administrative Law Wikipedia Project/Wikimedia Commons.

By Sean Savage/JNS.org

As the U.S. Congress debates whether or not to support the Iran nuclear deal, the same discussion is taking place in local Jewish communities around the country, where many Jews will inevitably look to their congregational rabbis for guidance on how they should view an agreement that many are criticizing for endangering the security of their brethren in Israel.

But pulpit rabbis are not members of Congress, and synagogues are not political advocacy organizations. So how and when is it appropriate for them to comment publicly on the Iran issue? JNS.org spoke with rabbis across the denominational spectrum to get a sense of what they consider to be the appropriate balance to strike.

“North American rabbis have to navigate carefully between defending Israel and their positions as Americans [in order to] take a stand on political issues,” Rabbi Joshua Weinberg—president of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), an organization that works to enhance Reform Judaism’s connection to Israel—told JNS.org.

The Iran deal is “probably one of the most divisive issues in the Jewish community” right now, said Weinberg, explaining that if a rabbi’s personal views on the Obama administration’s Iran deal clash with those of his or her congregation at large, there is a fine line regarding what the rabbi can say about the issue in public.

Rabbi Daniel Berman, a Conservative rabbi at Temple Reyim in Newton, Mass., believes that addressing difficult topics like the Iran deal depends on factors such as the “particular community’s interests and level of engagement with political or policy questions, and the comfort level and strength of the rabbi in offering sermons that touch these issues.”

While Berman is open to expressing his views about political questions in certain situations, he said he prefers fostering communal conversation.

“I am much more interested in supporting meaningful dialogue in the community, listening to people’s questions, and helping them form personal responses by looking closely at the deal rather than a ‘speaking from the bima’ approach,” Berman told JNS.org.

Rabbi Barry Gelman, the leader of United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston (UOS), said it is important that rabbis comment on the Iran deal “in terms of our role as spiritual leaders.” But he said rabbis should be careful when considering wading into sensitive political debates such as this one.

“Rabbis should not shy away from taking unpopular positions, but in a case like this, where experts disagree, rabbis should proceed with caution. Otherwise, our ability to inspire and be viewed as authorities on areas where we do claim expertise can be damaged,” Gelman told JNS.org.

At the same time, the Iran deal has significant ramifications for Israelis and Jews beyond the political fallout in America. Iran is one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism in the Middle East, supporting groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah—who have engaged in several wars with Israel during the past decade. As such, many Israelis fear that Iran will use the $150 billion of sanctions relief it secured in the deal to provide financial and military support to those terror groups.

“Rabbis should use the pulpit to sensitize their congregants to these realities, affirm our support for the State of Israel, and urge our government to be diligent in thwarting terrorists’ threats,” Gelman said.

ARZA’s Weinberg also feels rabbis have a role in guiding their congregations on the topic of Israel. He called rabbis “go-to” sources on the Jewish state who should be “well-read on the issues” affecting it.

“I don’t buy the excuse that they’re not nuclear scientists and have nothing to say,” Weinberg said of pulpit rabbis.

“Rabbis are representatives of the Jewish community,” and “part of our opinion on the deal has to take into consideration the effect on Israel,” he added.

For many Jews, the Iran deal debate is part of the ongoing challenge of determining how local communities should discuss Israel.

Temple Reyim’s Berman pointed to last summer’s Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as a recent example of an important event for rabbis and Jewish leaders to engage with.

“I wrote a piece in our newsletter and led two community conversations that we had in our sanctuary to allow people to address and respond to the conflict,” Berman said.

The Gaza conflict presented stark challenges to global Jewry, with anti-Semitic attacks inspired by criticism of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge sharply rising around the world, forcing many Jews to grapple with both political and physical challenges. Simultaneously, some members of the Jewish community were also critical of Israel’s war effort.

Due to this dichotomy, finding constructive and creative ways to engage the Jewish community on the tough challenges Israel faces—from Hamas to the Iran deal—is becoming an increasingly vital component of Jewish communal life. Berman said that having conversations about the Gaza war, and writing about current events in the synagogue newsletter, “was helpful in strengthening our community and helping members better understand the various issues that were at stake.”

Weinberg believes that rabbis should feel free to express their opinions, but that they must do so “carefully,” especially when commenting on topics such as Israel and the Iran deal.

“A rabbi’s job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” he said, adding that rabbis have a “teaching role” and “should offer a broad spectrum of views and insert their own views.”

The Jewish community will likely continue to grapple with the Iran deal for the foreseeable future. Against that backdrop, UOS’s Gelman said rabbis “should remind their congregants to educate themselves on the details of the agreement and make their voices heard to their elected officials.”

“This is not merely a political right, but a religious duty stemming from our universal obligations to the society in which we live,” he said.

]]>10 years on, Gaza pullout celebrity finds his peace and quietFeaturesIsraelJNS.orgFri, 24 Jul 2015 15:26:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/23/10-years-on-gaza-pullout-celebrity-finds-his-peace-and-quiet5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b13dabe4b0891ba353e3f5As the 10th anniversary of Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza
approaches, Eldad Galed has become a poster boy for the evacuated Jewish
communities of that area. Last year, he reached second place in the Israeli
adaptation of the popular reality show “Big Brother,” which had 12 Israelis
from all walks of life vie for the public’s favor as they lived secluded in
a house, their every move captured on camera. With his unabashed secularism
and love for the former Gush Katif Jewish communities, Galed is a unique
spokesman for the so-called “settlement” movement, serving to make the
cause relatable, acceptable, and even “cool.” Though he has softened his
view on the Israeli soldiers who helped carry out the Gaza pullout, Galed
says he’ll never forget. “I move on with my life,” he tells JNS.org, “but
as Metallica said, ‘the memory remains.’”

Eldad Galed doesn’t need to attend any of this summer’s commemoration ceremonies for the Gush Katif bloc of Jewish communities destroyed a decade ago to remember how he was pulled out of both his home and synagogue. He lives with the “expulsion”—as he calls the unilateral Israeli disengagement from Gaza in August 2005—on his body.

At a tattoo parlor in Peru four years ago, he tattooed on his upper back the slogan that is popular among Gush Katif “refugees,” as they often refer to themselves: “We will not forgive, we will not forget.”

Not long after, he gave that ink some company, getting the name of his destroyed religious Zionist community, “Gannei Tal,” tattooed in the shape of Israel on his upper right arm.

His observant Jewish mother had mixed feelings about it.

“On the one hand, I did a tattoo, which is forbidden. On the other hand, I didn’t do a tattoo of a butterfly. It has a lot of meaning,” Galed said in an interview with JNS.org on the sofa of his apartment in Yesod HaMa’aleh, a religiously mixed village north of the Sea of Galilee.

His mother is less forgiving of the tattoo on his forearm, a quote from Don McLean’s “Starry Night” that could apply to Gush Katif, but which probably refers to a girl: “This world was never meant for someone as beautiful as you.”

Galed became somewhat of a poster boy for the evacuated Gush Katif communities after he reached second place in last year’s Israeli adaptation of the popular reality show “Big Brother,” which had 12 Israelis from all walks of life vie for the public’s favor as they lived secluded in a house, their every move captured on camera.

Click photo to download. Caption: At left, the tattoo on Eldad Galed's upper back is the slogan of Gush Katif "refugees," as they call themselves: "We will not forgive, we will not forget." At right, the tattoo on Galed's upper right arm is the name of his destroyed religious Zionist community, "Gannei Tal," in the shape of Israel. Credit: Courtesy Eldad Galed.

During Israeli election season earlier this year, Galed appeared in a humorous video campaign for Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party that had two attractive women recount Bennett’s achievements as a Knesset member, only to lament with the punchline, “But he’s right-wing.” Galed then seductively approached these same women at a bar, with one gushing, “What a chatich [hunk],” while the other reminded her, “But he’s right-wing!”

Galed voted for Jewish Home this year, but during the previous Israeli election, he proudly hung a banner for both Jewish Home and the left-wing Meretz party on his Tel Aviv balcony. With his unabashed secularism and love for Gush Katif, he has been a unique spokesman for the so-called “settlement” movement, serving to make the cause relatable, acceptable, and even “cool.”

“I felt a sense of mission,” Galed said, with his tall, lean build and a signature beard that could let him pass as a rabbi if not for his loose, hippie-like colorful shorts and tank. The handsome Zionist broke many hearts when he met his girlfriend on the show, but their break-up a month ago prompted him to leave his life as a Tel Aviv socialite and move up north to run a rafting and mountain biking tourism operation with his actual big brother.

Galed said he auditioned for “Big Brother” for two reasons: “One was for me, and also to show that the ‘settlers’ are not how they’re represented in the media. And that’s how it was in Tel Aviv. They’d ask, ‘Where are you from, and I’d say, ‘Gush Katif,’ and they’d say, ‘Whoa.’ I spoke the language of Tel Aviv.”

Click photo to download. Caption: An aerial view of the re-established Gannei Tal community in southern Israel. Eldad Galed lived in the now-destroyed version of Gannei Tal in Gaza before Israel's unilateral disengagement from the area in 2005. Credit: Amos Meron via Wikimedia Commons.

That language, in large part, was going out and girls. This former “club kid” said he had a religious Zionist heart before he was expelled from his home, but, never a fan of structure, he didn’t observe Jewish law the Orthodox way. He admits to being a bit of a bad boy growing up in Gannei Tal in one of the few divorced families among a community of 70 families.

Galed, however, is speaking less “Tel Aviv-ese” these days. He’s come back to his roots: the soil of Israel and a sense of community.

“The north for me is not Gush Katif, but it’s a small place where everyone knows everyone,” he said. “It’s quiet. A good friend told me it’s a lot easier to find a mess when you want it than to find quiet when you need it.”

The last 10 years since the Gaza pullout have indeed been messy and loud.

“It broke my faith, my faith in God,” Galed said.

Someone who once pledged never to tour abroad until first touring the entire land of Israel flew to the United States months after he lost a 1,000-shekel bet that the “expulsion” wouldn’t happen.

“What did I have to look for here?” he said. “It was very hard for me to be in Israel. It was all so fresh. Everything reminded you of it.”

Like many Israelis who have completed their army service, Galed worked merchandise carts at an American mall, selling imitation pets while wearing an “I Love Hot Moms” t-shirt. His displaced heart took him back to Israel, then to the U.S., England, and South America, until he finally settled in Tel Aviv for the last eight years.

One thing remained constant: his belief in the cause of Gush Katif, for which he never apologized, especially while a radical left-winger he outlasted on the “Big Brother” show tried to paint him—unsuccessfully, he said—as a racist chauvinist simply for his origins as a “settler.”

The show earned him more than 26,000 followers on Instagram and his share of groupies, with one woman even filing a police complaint that “Big Brother” was rigged when he didn’t emerge as the winner. Ambling around the “Big Brother” house in his orange tank top—a ripped variation of the “uniform” of those who battled for Gush Katif—he brought the cause of the “expellees” to the public spotlight, becoming a source of pride for his community, which has since re-established a new “Gannei Tal” in southern Israel.

“They’re happy I represented them honorably,” he said. “I can honestly say I didn’t screw up much.”

As for the pledge emblazoned on his back, Galed said he won’t ever forgive the politicians involved in the Gaza pullout, but that he has softened his view on the soldiers who participated.

“They were kids,” he said. “They didn’t know. They didn’t having an understanding. I can’t be mad at them. I should be mad at them, but not anymore.”

]]>It’s time to evict J Street from the Jewish communal tentOpinionU.S.JNS.orgFri, 24 Jul 2015 15:25:42 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/24/its-time-to-evict-j-street-from-the-jewish-communal-tent5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b25649e4b0f48e249b0af0In an almost unprecedented moment for American Jewry, the majority of
prominent Jewish organizations have lined up in order to combat the Iran
nuclear deal. Amid this historic display of unity, J Street has been the
outlier, vigorously campaigning in support of the deal. With the nuclear
issue putting Israel and the Jewish people in a life-threatening situation,
now is the time for Jewish leaders who care about unity and who care about
Jewish life to show J Street their communal tent’s exit flap, write Charles
Jacobs and Elliott Hamilton of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.

Click photo to download. Caption: "J Street: Another country heard from," a cartoon responding to J Street's campaign against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's U.S. Congress speech about the Iranian nuclear threat in March. At the time, J Street's online petition declared, “I’m a Jew. Bibi does NOT speak for me!” Credit: FeinTooner.

By Charles Jacobs and Elliott Hamilton/JNS.org

The recent announcement of the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran has sparked deep concern and even outrage in the Jewish community. In an almost unprecedented moment for American Jewry, the majority of prominent Jewish organizations have lined up in order to combat this deal. This includes AIPAC, the ADL, and various Jewish Federation chapters, including those in Boston and Miami. This historic display of Jewish unity comes because of a clear belief that Israel and the Jewish people have been placed in a life-threatening situation.

But the J Street lobby has broken ranks with that sentiment. Back when the deal’s framework was reached in early April, J Street co-authored a statement with the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) and the Arab American Institute, welcoming the agreement. Now that the details have become known and almost every major Jewish organization is trying to kill the deal, J Street is undertaking a multi-million dollar campaign to get Jews to support an arrangement that at best keeps Iran nuke-free for about a decade while it gives the mullahs $150 billion to arm Israel’s enemies. This puts J Street in direct confrontation with the more than 80 percent of the Jews of Israel, whose political parties from left to right are fiercely united against President Barack Obama’s deal.

J Street’s campaigning for the Iran deal comes as no surprise to those who have been carefully watching the organization since its inception in 2008. J Street’s policy on Iran has never been aligned with the rest of the American Jewish community. In Americans for Peace and Tolerance’s film “The J Street Challenge,” Professor Alan Dershowitz complains that: “It’s impossible to know what J Street’s position on Iran is. I actually offered to contribute money to J Street if they would answer a series of specific questions about their positions on Iran, and I couldn’t get an answer to any of those questions.”

J Street has a history of taking significant sums of money from anti-Israel sources—and lying about it. For example, J Street continuously lied about its funding from George Soros, who has blamed Israel and the Jewish people for the rise of global anti-Semitism. While J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami kept denying it, Eli Lake reported in 2010 that J Street acquired $750,000 from Soros’s family. Ben-Ami was eventually forced to apologize for lying.

Even more troubling was the discovery that Genevieve Lynch, a board member of the NIAC, also funded J Street. NIAC is no ally of the Jewish community, and has recently created a 501(c)4 to counter pro-Israel groups’ attempts to halt the Iran deal.

In 2012, J Street spent $100,000 trying to convince lawmakers on Capitol Hill to both ease the rhetoric against Iran and to alter the status of the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission to the U.S.

J Street has also received funding from the Ploughshares Fund, Inc., a global security foundation that supports a “peaceful world, including on free of nuclear weapons.” This same organization spent millions of dollars pushing for Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Secretary of Defense and lobbying to lift sanctions off Iran. According to the Ploughshares Fund’s Form 990 in 2012, J Street acquired $25,000 “to support efforts to educate members of Congress on the consequences that preemptive use of military force against Iran’s nuclear program may have on Israel.” In its Form 990s in both 2013 and 2014, it shows that Ploughshares gave J Street a total of $275,000 “to use a pro-Israel frame to educate members of Congress on the dangers that a military confrontation with Iran could have for both Israel and the U.S., and to promote political solutions to the nuclear impasse.”

Why would a seemingly pro-Israel organization acquire funds from pro-Iran sources to promote a pro-Iran agenda to the United States Congress? One reason seems clear: J Street’s usefulness to Israel’s adversaries is its “pro-Israel frame,” and that can be successfully monetized.

Some of J Street’s senior leaders have at times let the mask slip. Marcia Freedman, a member of J Street’s Advisory Council, told the 2015 J Street Conference delegation, “Israelis should not have a state.” Daniel Levy, one of J Street’s co-founders, told the 2011 J Street conference that if it’s true, as some say, that Israel’s neighbors hate the Jewish state not for what it does, but for what it is, then “Israel really ain’t a very good idea.”

In addition to its pro-Iran deal lobbying, J Street has often lobbied against laws that most American Jews support. For example, J Street opposed the Roskam-Vargas “U.S.-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act,” an anti-BDS bill, claiming that it “did not believe it would be appropriate for the United States government to spend time and resources preventing or reporting on such efforts.”

So what should be done about J Street?

Many Jewish Federations and Jewish Community Relations Councils (JCRCs) have accepted J Street within their “big tent.” They have done this in order to keep the peace and to prevent left-leaning Jews from withholding donations. This is still the case after J Street was denied a seat at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and after its leader, Ben-Ami, referred to the Jewish Federations and the JCRCs as a “multi-headed hydra.”

Charles Jacobs

But the times have dramatically changed. Israel and its Jews are directly threatened with nuclear extinction and J Street is working hard to enable this catastrophe. With the majority of Jewish organizations coming together to combat this existentially dangerous deal with Iran, now is the time for Jewish leaders who care about unity and who care about Jewish life to show J Street their tent’s exit flap.

Elliott Hamilton

Pro-Iran J Street—which is spending millions of dollars to promote a deal that threatens Jewish life, receiving significant sums of cash from anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sources to promote pro-Iran causes, and dangerously undermining the collective Jewish unity needed to block the deadly Iranian threat—should be drummed out of organized Jewish life.

]]>Holy cow! Red heifer project part of path from ‘mourning to building’ TempleFeaturesIsraelJewish LifeJNS.orgThu, 23 Jul 2015 16:04:37 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/23/holy-cow-red-heifer-project-part-of-path-from-mourning-to-building-temple-15126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b10ddfe4b03ff9d3b902cbWhat weighs 400 pounds, is necessary for the establishment of the third
Jewish Temple, hasn’t been seen in 2,000 years, and is completely red? If
you guessed “para aduma,” or the red heifer, give yourself a hand. And keep
your eyes on Israel’s Negev desert. That’s because by this time next year,
if a team from the Jerusalem-based Temple Institute is successful, you may
find there a candidate qualified to perform a key function in the
greatly yearned-for future Temple. “It’s not enough to just mourn,” says
Rabbi Chaim Richman, international director of the Temple Institute. “We
have to move from mourning to building. Creating this cow is something that
moves us forward.”

What weighs 400 pounds, is necessary for the coming of the Third Temple, hasn’t been seen in 2,000 years, and is completely red?

If you guessed “para aduma,” or the red heifer, give yourself a hand. And keep your eyes on Israel’s Negev desert. That’s because by this time next year, if a team of rabbis, activists, and a dairy farmer have their way, you may find there a candidate—or even more than one—qualified to perform a key function in the greatly yearned-for third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

It has been 1,945 years, to be exact, since Titus and his Roman legions destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE. But the Jerusalem-based Temple Institute, an educational and activist organization whose stated mission is “to restore Temple consciousness” and reactivate the “‘forgotten’ commandments” of the Temple era, is doing everything in its power to get ready for the Temple of the future, creating vessels, priestly garments, the furnishings, and a huge golden menorah—all to the exact specifications set out in the Torah. The only missing piece for the institute, aside from the Temple building itself, has been breeding the requisite red heifer.

“Our immediate goal is to produce the first kosher red heifer in 2,000 years,” Rabbi Chaim Richman, international director of the Temple Institute, tells JNS.org.

Why is the red heifer such an integral part of the Temple to come?

As set out in Chapter 19 of the Torah’s Book of Numbers (“Bamidbar” in Hebrew), the cow in question is sacrificed and its ashes are used to purify those who come in contact with a human corpse. Today’s Temple Institute project stands at a rare place: where ancient Torah laws meet modern farming techniques. After decades of research, the institute has contracted with an Israeli dairy farmer who is well-versed in the ways of animal husbandry to breed the perfect red heifer. The farmer had independently imported frozen embryos from red angus cows and implanted them in Israeli black or brown cows. The Temple Institute later agreed to work with the farmer to make a kosher red heifer.

The results have been encouraging so far, Richman reports, although only male offspring have emerged to date. The hope is that some females will be produced in the next round (slated for around the time of Rosh Hashanah), and that among them, a perfectly red specimen—no more than two hairs can be black or any other color—will emerge.

“To do it right takes a lot of planning,” says Richman. “And a lot of supervision.”

Breeding the right cow, however, is just the start. After her birth, the calf must be fed special food and never be worked or impregnated. Even a cow ear tag would be considered a disqualifying blemish. By age 3, she is ready to take her place as a key player in the work of the Holy Temple.

Yet all this takes time—and money. The Temple Institute, therefore, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the project.

The lesson of the red heifer is particularly crucial in modern times, says Rabbi Binny Freedman, head of the Orayta yeshiva, which is fittingly situated near the site of the first two Temples in Jerusalem.

“The red heifer is all about purifying those who came in contact with death, about re-engaging in life,” he says. “It’s something we need so much in today’s world where there is a battle going on between cultures of glorifying death and those who embrace life. We also see the Temple as a place where Jews come together to put aside their differences... and that is also sorely needed right now.”

But what does the average Jew think about breeding the first designated red heifer in 2,000 years? JNS.org got mixed reviews.

“I’m a bit skeptical,” Alec Schramm of Los Angeles says. “I’m concerned it could engender more zealotry and the Middle East doesn’t need more zealots. And, even if the red heifer weren’t here, I am guessing the Messiah will come when he’s ready anyway.”

“On the one hand,” says Judith Prais of London, “it seems a little premature, but on the other hand, just knowing it’s possible is good. It forces you to imagine what it would be like to have the Third Temple, to engage with the details.”

“You could argue that there are more important things that need to happen first to bring the Messianic age, like Jews getting along,” says Avi Bieler, who lives in Jerusalem. “But still, the idea of getting ready for it like this? That’s great. Kol hakavod (all honor) to them for doing it.”

Perhaps, then, it’s appropriate that the institute announced the breeding program in the days leading up to Tisha B’Av (Ninth of Av) on July 26, the fast day when Jews around the world mourn the destruction of both Temples.

“It’s not enough to just mourn,” Rabbi Richman says. “We have to move from mourning to building. Creating this cow is something that moves us forward. The Jewish Temples are not myths, they stood here for a total of 800 years as a place of tahara (purity) in how we relate to each other, and peace between nations, and one will stand here again. Our goal in the heifer program, and everything we do at the institute, is to create the longing for the Temple in the heart of the Jewish people. How it comes about? That has yet to be seen.”

The cow herself is going to take some time to step forward. Even after the perfect heifer is born and proves worthy, she needs to be supervised closely for three years before coming of age to serve in the Temple.

]]>Hey @TheIranDeal, I have some questions—actually, lots of themOpinionU.S.AnalysisBen Cohen / JNS.orgWed, 22 Jul 2015 21:48:52 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/22/hey-theirandeal-i-have-some-questionsactually-lots-of-them5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55b00d57e4b0ab39b3133230JNS.org columnist Ben Cohen offers 12 questions—and that just scratches the
surface—for the White House’s new @TheIranDeal Twitter handle, which the
Obama administration says will try to “set the record straight” on the
nuclear agreement between world powers and the Islamic Republic. For
everyone else, Cohen suggests: keep blitzing @TheIranDeal with questions.
Keep demanding answers. Just because they are silent, it doesn’t mean they
aren’t listening.

Click photo to download. Caption: Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes addresses journalists on the coming year's foreign policy priorities of the Obama administration at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, DC, on January 29, 2014. More recently, Rhodes introduced @TheIranDeal Twitter handle, which the White House says will “set the record straight” on the nuclear agreement between world powers and the Islamic Republic. Credit: State Department.

By Ben Cohen/JNS.org

This week, a bunch of journalists, foreign policy wonks, and assorted pundits received an email from the White House that began with the legendary words, “Hey, I’m Ben Rhodes, a Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. For the past few years, I’ve been working closely with America’s negotiating team, which was tasked with finding a way to achieve a diplomatic resolution that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Don’t you just love that “Hey,” greeting? So informal, so accessible, so confident, so quintessentially Obaman. And it didn’t end there.

“Last week,” Rhodes continued, “after two years of tough negotiations, our team along with our international partners achieved just that.”

Perhaps anticipating a chorus of “Oh no, you didn’t,” Rhodes added that “it’s important that everyone here and around the world understands exactly what’s in it and how it’ll work.” And then came this assurance: “This is a strong deal, with significant constraints on Iran’s nuclear program, and unprecedented access to Iranian nuclear facilities—including 24/7, continuous monitoring.”

So what do you do if you still have doubts? The purpose of the round-robin email from Rhodes was to announce the latest PR initiative from the White House, in the form of a Twitter feed with the handle @TheIranDeal. (If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had done the same, the Obama administration and its sympathizers would now all be whining about “hasbara,” the Hebrew word for public diplomacy, but let’s leave that aside for now.)

According to Rhodes, @TheIranDeal is “dedicated to delivering the facts and answering your questions about the deal and how it enhances American national security.” What that means—and here, Rhodes was explicit—is ensuring that America isn’t dragged “into another conflict in the Middle East.” In other words, the choice is between agreeing to this lousy, feeble deal or risking the lives and limbs of our troops in an Iraq/Afghanistan redux. But if you’re still not convinced, you can send comments and questions to @TheIranDeal, and they will be answered. As the Twitter page declares, “Tweet us your questions, and we’ll set the record straight.”

As of the afternoon of Wednesday, July 22, more than 24 hours after the Twitter feed was launched, and with more than 12,000 followers already signed up, @TheIranDeal had published exactly 19 tweets. They were all pretty platitudinous, more or less, for example, “Why #IranDeal is a vital step: Problems like sponsoring terror or detaining citizens made more difficult to resolve if Iran acquired a nuke.” As for answering the difficult questions, I saw no evidence of any effort to do so. Two questions I sent them remain, at the time of this writing, unanswered, and dozens of friends and colleagues have told me that they were hearing the same virtual silence.

Maybe the White House is short-staffed. Maybe President Barack Obama’s confidant, Valerie Jarrett, has suddenly decided she doesn’t like the idea. Maybe they don’t know how to answer the difficult questions. I can’t say for sure, but what I do know is this: With @TheIranDeal, the Obama administration has pledged itself to a direct dialogue with the citizens of this country and with the global public at large. So we need to hold them to account and bombard them with questions and comments.

In that light, I modestly offer some suggestions, in no particular order, as to what you all should be raising. There are any number of topics—the lifting of sanctions, the support for terrorism, the Iranian backing for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the weak inspections regime, the woeful human rights situation in Iran—that must be addressed. All you have to remember is to keep your questions within Twitter’s 140-character limit. Oh, and maybe start off with the word “Hey,” since this is now apparently an acceptable addition to the lexicon of political terminology.

Hey @TheIranDeal, how will you prevent the sanctions windfall coming Iran’s way from being used to kill more Syrian kids?

Hey @TheIranDeal, if Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful, why is the regime only “called upon” not to undertake ballistic missile activity?

Hey @TheIranDeal, why are you claiming “24/7 continuous monitoring” when the Iranians have at least 24 days to approve inspections?

Hey @TheIranDeal, what’s your response to nuclear expert Olli Heinonen’s claim that the 24-day window will make hiding nuclear arms development work easier?

Hey @TheIranDeal, why are you taking Gen. Qassem Solaimani, a man responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, off the sanctions list?

Hey @TheIranDeal, how do you assess nuclear expert David Albright’s claim that installing new centrifuges will lower Iran’s break-out time to a few days or weeks?

Hey @TheIranDeal, what leverage do you have if the Iranians refuse full disclosure of the Possible Military Dimensions of their nuclear research?

Hey @TheIranDeal, how will you monitor the underground Fordow enrichment facility if the Revolutionary Guards won’t let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in?

Hey @TheIranDeal, does it bother you that Iran’s Supreme Leader addressed a “Death to America” rally one day after this deal was announced?

Hey @TheIranDeal, what will you do if Iran’s National Security Council refuses to ratify the deal?

Ben Cohen

Hey @TheIranDeal, to quote President Obama, are “all options” still on the table?

There are hundreds of similar questions that can be asked, but I hope you get my drift. The White House believes it can sell the Iran deal in the manner that one might sell a hot fashion designer—putting Obama on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” plastering social media platforms, and creating a general zeitgeist that anyone who opposes this deal is not only nuts, but probably someone who voted for George W. Bush.

Keep blitzing @TheIranDeal with questions. Keep demanding answers. Just because they are silent, it doesn’t mean they aren’t listening.

]]>‘Concierge rabbi’ envisions more nimble Jewish spiritual leadershipJewish LifeFeaturesU.S.JNS.orgWed, 22 Jul 2015 14:29:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/21/concierge-rabbi-envisions-more-nimble-jewish-spiritual-leadership5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55ae9f16e4b0d81697b74e6bIn layman’s terms, “concierge” essentially means a personal assistant. So
what exactly does a “concierge rabbi” do? Just ask Rabbi David Greenspoon
of Reisterstown, Md., who founded “Jewtique: Concierge Rabbinic Services.”
Though Greenspoon recently took on a new full-time pulpit in Virginia, he
hopes his concierge business will continue to feed the souls of both his
congregation and other Jews seeking his guidance. “You have to meet people
where they are at and help them realize the depth and quality of the Jewish
experience,” says Greenspoon, who provides services ranging from baby
namings to funerals.

In layman’s terms, “concierge” essentially means a personal assistant. So what exactly does a “concierge rabbi” do?

Just ask Rabbi David Greenspoon of Reisterstown, Md., who founded “Jewtique: Concierge Rabbinic Services.” Though Greenspoon recently took on a new full-time pulpit in Virginia, he hopes his concierge business will continue to feed the souls of both his congregation and other Jews seeking his guidance.

“You have to meet people where they are at and help them realize the depth and quality of the Jewish experience,” Greenspoon tells JNS.org.

A Conservative rabbi, Greenspoon started Jewtique after leaving a full-time pulpit in 2012. While he was exploring his next steps, several congregants approached him about running a High Holiday service. That year, Greenspoon offered an alternative experience in an area church, which turned out to be packed—by some former congregants but also by scores of unaffiliated individuals from the area.

There was no turning back.

“I started getting calls to do pastoral counseling, religious services for other holidays, to meet people’s rabbinic needs,” Greenspoon recalls, noting the extensive list of services he now provides, from baby namings to funeral services.

What Greenspoon realized is that the growing population of unaffiliated Jews was met with two options when they had “Jewish needs”—turn to an Orthodox outreach professional, or “rent an unexperienced rabbi.” Greenspoon understood that he offered a commodity in America’s Mid-Atlantic region: someone worldly, modern, and just secular enough, with a rich rabbinical background and education.

“One thing I learned is that external appearances can either create a divide between you and other people or serve as a means to connect,” Greenspoon says, explaining why his wardrobe ranges from hippie garb, to polo shirt and slacks, to suit and tie.

“Some people want a rabbi in pinstripes and tie. Others want to meet at Starbucks and have a low-key conversation in plain sight, without anyone knowing they are meeting with the rabbi,” he says.

Jacalyn Babitz of Ellicott City, Md., says she has a deep appreciation for Greenspoon’s work. A religious Catholic woman, Babitz felt lost when her late husband—a Jew—passed away.

“I had no idea what to do, but I knew my late husband would want a traditional Jewish funeral,” says Babitz, who was referred to Greenspoon by the Jewish funeral home that was making arrangements for her husband.

Babitz says that even during her time of sadness, she immediately connected with Greenspoon and knew he could relate to her late husband.

“It turned out he was into rock and roll and guitar, and so the rabbi and my husband had something in common,” she says. “And he took the time to learn the rest. Rabbi Greenspoon made sure everything was laid out for a memorial service and he explained everything along the way from the way I should greet people, to the candle, to carrying the coffin. These were all things I didn’t know, but he never made me feel like an outsider.”

Babitz says she and her husband used to celebrate both Christian and Jewish holidays together. But she had never planned a Jewish memorial service.

“Sometimes people make you feel like an outsider and then you don’t want to do it at all, because you think, ‘People are going to look down on me.’ I was feeling like that, were the Jews going to think I was a sinner or my late husband wasn’t the perfect Jew because he was married to me. Rabbi Greenspoon says to me, ‘It doesn’t matter. … It doesn’t matter who you are, what religion you are. This event will bring people closer together.’ And it did,” says Babitz.

Greenspoon’s focus on the self-perceived “outsider” extends to the Jewish community itself. The Pew Research Center’s much-debated 2013 “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” survey found that more than one-in-five Jewish adults (22 percent) say they are atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular. The same study identified a 58-percent intermarriage rate among U.S. Jews. Greenspoon says his services are geared towards serving this sector of the Jewish population.

Rabbi Jessica Minnen, resident rabbi of New York’s OneTable initiative, which brings together Jews in their 20s and 30s for Shabbat dinners, says people with rabbinical degrees today have the opportunity to be “all kinds of rabbis.” The constituency of post-college/pre-family Jews, she says, “does not necessarily have access to the traditional pulpit rabbinate.”

“So it is about being present in the places and at the times that these people are trying to create their lives and determine what, if anything, Judaism has to do with them,” Minnen says, adding that “no one human being—not even the best pulpit rabbi—can meet all the needs of everyone who passes through the walls of his or her synagogue.”

Greenspoon says he sees his rabbinical colleagues beginning to follow in his footsteps, both to diversify their sources of income and to better build a community—not just a congregation.

“Concierge rabbis are going to be more and more common down the road,” he says. “For the rabbinate to survive—and the Jewish people to thrive—we’re going to have to be more nimble.”

]]>Israeli audience gets a taste of Jewish Voice for Peace’s brand of betrayalIsraelOpinionU.S.JNS.orgWed, 22 Jul 2015 14:28:47 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/22/israeli-audience-gets-a-taste-of-jewish-voice-for-peaces-brand-of-betrayal5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55afa752e4b081a3c7d45094Israel’s Channel 2 recently dedicated a full 15 minutes to the anti-Israel
group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Reporter Danny Kushmaro brought to an
Israeli audience awareness of “the Jews that stand behind the boycott of
Israel.” For Yitzhak Santis, a longtime “student” of JVP, as well as many
Americans, there would be little surprise to hear the venomous rhetoric
disgorged by JVP activists. But for an Israeli audience that never heard of
JVP, the reaction had to have been nothing short of shock and a profound
sense of betrayal, writes Santis, chief programs officer at the
Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor.

Click photo to download. Caption: An October 2007 demonstration in Seattle by the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace. Credit: Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons.

By Yitzhak Santis/JNS.org

Israel’s Channel 2 recently dedicated a full 15 minutes to the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Reporter Danny Kushmaro brought to an Israeli audience awareness of “the Jews that stand behind the boycott of Israel.” For me, a longtime “student” of JVP, as well as many Americans, there would be little surprise to hear the venomous rhetoric disgorged by JVP activists. For an Israeli audience that never heard of JVP, however, the reaction had to have been nothing short of shock and a profound sense of betrayal.

For decades, I lived in JVP’s cradle, the San Francisco Bay Area, and watched it grow in the 1990s from a small living room coffee klatch calling for a two-state solution to what it is today: a national organization with a multi-million dollar budget that has formally endorsed the full Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement agenda of undermining the Jewish state’s existence.

Where JVP gets its money from is largely unknown, as the group is highly secretive about its funding sources. The organization has published only two “annual” reports in the last decade, both of which offer no clue about its funding. NGO Monitor did find 21 mostly hard-left, and one Arab-American, foundations that underwrite JVP. But this only accounts for a fraction of JVP’s budget.

JVP is also murky about its membership. Its executive director, Rebecca Vilkomerson, has stated, “We’re not an insignificant portion of the Jewish community.” JVP tries to bolster this assertion with the claim that it has “200,000 online activists.” Yet JVP does not discuss how it determines which of these activists are actually Jewish. To be part of the Jewish community, one has to be, well, Jewish.

Though JVP has supported BDS for years, it didn’t officially join the international campaign until this February. BDS activists, of course, do not want to make peace with Israel. Rather, they seek peace without any Israel. The key BDS demand signaling this is the call for a “right of return” of millions of descendants of the Palestinian Arab refugees that emerged from the 1948 Arab-initiated annihilationist war against Israel.

BDS wants to reverse the results of that war.

In the Channel 2 report, when Kushmaro asked two JVP activists about their group’s support for a “right of return,” their answers were appalling. Sitting on a bucolic park bench far from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic State, Kushmaro asked them, “If, after we make the right of return and all those things of the BDS, there will come peace? There will be peace in Israel?”

“I think it is the only way that there can ever be peace in Israel,” replied one of the JVPers.

“And if you are wrong?” asked Kushmaro. The other JVPer spluttered over her words searching for an answer and, finding none, asked Kushmaro in a tone of indignation, “How are we, how are we supposed to answer these questions?”

Being thousands of miles away from the chaos engulfing the Arab world on Israel’s immediate borders gives these two JVP representatives the luxury to objectify Israelis and reduce their predicament to one-dimensional theories supported by glib sloganeering.

We who live here in Israel, however, understand well that this “right of return” demand is a euphemism for delegitimizing Israel’s status as the national home in which the Jewish people are implementing their right to self-determination. JVP may not see it, but there is a major dissonance between calling yourself “Jewish Voice for Peace” while actively opposing this right for your own people.

The Los Angeles Jewish Journal recently focused on one of the BDS movement’s founding leaders, Omar Barghouti, who in 2013 said, “Definitely, most definitely do we (BDS leaders) oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No rational, not-sell-out Palestinian will ever accept a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.”

Despite (or because of) this, JVP’s Vilkomerson described to the Jewish Journal how Barghouti and the BDS campaign “have been incredibly patient with us.” In the “past few years, she said, [BDS] leaders ‘were willing to work with us despite us not endorsing the full call [for BDS].’”

Yitzhak Santis

Indeed. The JVP-Barghouti relationship is actually longstanding. In 2011, Barghouti wrote that the “BDS National Committee (BNC)… sees JVP as an important ally in the U.S.” Further, Barghouti was listed as a featured speaker at JVP’s 2013 National Member Meeting.

Let’s not mince words. Israel’s 6-and-a-half million Jews are about half the world’s Jewish population. JVP’s support for delegitimizing Israel, while promoting its isolation and destabilization in a Middle East where hundreds of thousands have died in ethnic and sectarian civil wars, is an act of existential betrayal to 50 percent of world Jewry.

Betrayal, with all its connotations of treachery and perfidy, is a strong word. But when a group of Diaspora Jews joins forces with Israel’s most extreme adversaries seeking to strip the Jewish people of the inalienable right to national self-determination, I cannot find another word to describe such behavior.

Yitzhak Santis is chief programs officer at the Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor.

]]>At Jerusalem Film Festival, new year brings new kind of dramaArtsFeaturesIsraelJudy Lash Balint/JNS.orgWed, 22 Jul 2015 13:49:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/21/at-jerusalem-film-festival-new-year-brings-new-kind-of-drama5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55ae9b29e4b0d3237adf0deaIn July 2014 in Jerusalem, sirens over the city at the beginning of the
50-day Gaza war forced the cancellation of the outdoor opening event of the
Jerusalem International Film Festival. The festival went on despite several
schedule changes and film celebrities who were last-minute no-shows, but
the usual festive atmosphere was distinctly muted. This year, the July 9-19
festival was not without controversy, but bore none of last year’s
tensions, with both the opening and closing events drawing large crowds at
the Sultan’s Pool venue just below the walls of the Old City. This year’s
most controversial film was “Beyond The Fear,” a documentary about the
personal life of Yigal Amir, who is serving a life sentence in prison for
the assassination of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Click photo to download. Caption: The Jerusalem International Film Festival's founder, the late Lia Van Leer (second from left), is pictured at the 2012 festival. Van Leer died earlier this year, and the recent 2015 festival featured a tribute to her that attracted hundreds who remembered her persistence in trying to make the Jerusalem Cinematheque open to all in Israel's capital. Credit: Judy Lash Balint.

By Judy Lash Balint/JNS.org

In July 2014 in Jerusalem, sirens over the city at the beginning of the 50-day Gaza war forced the cancellation of the outdoor opening event of the Jerusalem International Film Festival. The festival went on despite several schedule changes and film celebrities who were last-minute no-shows, but the usual festive atmosphere was distinctly muted.

This year, the July 9-19 festival was not without controversy, but bore none of last year’s tensions, with both the opening and closing events drawing large crowds at the Sultan’s Pool venue just below the walls of the Old City.

John Turturro, star of “Mia Madre,” the feature film that opened the festival, told filmgoers, “I always wanted to come to Jerusalem.” The closing event brought together the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra with Francis Ford Coppola’s classic, “The Godfather,” as the orchestra performed Nino Rota’s music to an appreciative audience.

This year marked the 32nd annual Jerusalem Film Festival, an event that has assumed a prominent place in the international film festival circuit and become a 10-day hub of cinematic activity that highlights the dynamic Israeli film scene.

Most of the 230 films showcased during the festival were screened in and around the Jerusalem Cinematheque in the Hinnom Valley before an international crowd of guests that included renowned film critics, producers, directors, and actors, who could be seen mingling and talking shop in the gardens between screenings.

Cinematheque co-founder and longtime film festival director Lia Van Leer died earlier this year at age 90, and a moving tribute evening during the festival attracted hundreds who remembered her charismatic presence and persistence in trying to make the Cinematheque open to all in Jerusalem.

Click photo to download. Caption: The Jerusalem Cinematheque and Sultan's Pool just below the walls of the Old City, the venue of the annual Jerusalem International Film Festival. Credit: Judy Lash Balint.

The most controversial movie of this year’s festival, and a film that was protested by both right and left within Israel’s contentious cultural landscape, was “Beyond The Fear,” a documentary about the personal life of Yigal Amir, who is serving a life sentence in prison for the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev wanted the film scrapped from the festival lineup and threatened to slash government support for the festival unless the film was removed. Others who protested the film were former president Shimon Peres and opposition leader Member of Knesset Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union). In a compromise, the film was eventually shown twice at a separate nearby venue the day before the festival opened. Both screenings were sold out.

“Beyond the Fear” was nowhere to be seen in the awards ceremony. The Van Leer Award for Best Documentary Film went to Silvina Landsmann’s “Hotline,” which highlights the work of the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants in Tel Aviv.

Winner of the Haggiag Competition for Full-Length Israeli Feature was Avishai Sivan’s “Tikkun,” set in the haredi community. The film tells the story of a young religious man who goes through a near-death experience and emerges a different person.

The Israel Critics’ Forum Award for Best Feature Film went to Tova Ascher’s “AKA Nadia,” filmed in Jerusalem and London. Ascher is a renowned Israeli film editor, and “AKA Nadia” is her first feature film.

The Audience Award went to Doron Paz and Yoav Paz’s “JeruZalem,” a creative horror movie set in the Holy City that will have its official world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada.

In addition to hosting film screenings, the Jerusalem festival is an opportunity for Israeli filmmakers to both promote their completed works and try to obtain funding and attention for their works in progress. This year, 11 projects competed in the festival’s “Pitch Point” sessions in front of a prestigious international jury that included American producer Ira Deutchman, Serb producer Miroslav Mogorovic, and Karni Ziv, head of Israel’s Keshet Media Group.

On the lighter side, in collaboration with the Jerusalem Municipality, the festival offered free screenings under the stars in several locations in the Old City, with the emphasis on fantasies, family-friendly films, and action films. At the nearby First Station recreational area, nightly free showings of classic Israeli films were a popular feature of this year’s festival.

Many festival attendees dive into the event’s catalog as soon as it’s published and have trouble whittling down their film choices. For some, like Adina Mishkoff Kischel, the process is a real marathon—she told her Facebook friends that she had bought tickets for 30 films over the course of the 10-day festival.

Now that the curtain has closed on this year’s festival, what will next year bring? Many more options for film buffs like Kischel to choose from—and perhaps a new controversy to boot.

]]>My aliyah day (a.k.a. the most intense day of my life)Aliyah AnnotatedIsraelOpinionJNS.orgWed, 22 Jul 2015 13:37:27 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/22/my-aliyah-day-aka-the-most-intense-day-of-my-life5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55af9a33e4b0cebe218d089eEliana Rudee, a fellow with the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought
and author of the new "Aliyah Annotated" column for JNS.org, reflects on
the day she moved to Israel—which she calls the most intense day of her
life. She writes that the bitterness of the "goodbyes" and the sublime
sweetness of the "hellos" have been etched into her deepest being, giving
her a feeling that bittersweetness will become a theme of her aliyah
journey to come.

By Eliana Rudee/JNS.org

It happened. I’m officially an Israeli and I have an identification number that will stick with me (and my future children, G-d willing) to prove it! What a week it’s been—definitely one of the best in my life.

I was on a special flight chartered by Nefesh B’Nefesh, the organization that helps new immigrants through the process of making aliyah. Every summer, Nefesh B’Nefesh charters flights through the El Al airline in which everyone on the plane is making aliyah together on a free one-way flight. (This is just one of the benefits that new immigrants receive when they make aliyah.)

The day of my flight, I woke up at 6 a.m., knowing it was going to be one long day. I arrived at JFK Airport around 8 a.m. for a 1:15 p.m. flight. Walking through the doors of the international terminal, a big sign directed me to “Nefesh B’Nefesh Aliyah Flight Registration.” Standing in line between the men, women, and children of all ages who were waiting to drop their bags, I schmoozed with the people around me until a Nefesh B’Nefesh staff member presented me with an iPad of documents to sign. “This one is saying you are now an Israeli citizen, so you can get your Israeli ID,” he said casually. (He must have done at least a hundred of these already.) I signed it and couldn’t help but grin. I looked up at him, and he grinned back and chuckled, understanding the significance for me.

Click photo to download. Caption: Eliana Rudee settles in to her new life in Israel. Credit: Stacey Rudee.

After dropping my bags, I went down to the “farewell ceremony” that was arranged for us. Most people had family members to send them off, but my family was already in Israel for vacation, awaiting my arrival at the airport. Before the ceremony began, we were served cake, packed breakfasts, water, and soda. There was even a clown making balloons.

An elderly woman directed to the seat next to mine in the front row immediately struck me as “Holocaust survivor.” My guess was that she would speak to the group on the meaning of having a Jewish state to protect us in times of need. I was partly right. Turns out (get this!) she was from Germany and was the oldest immigrant on our flight at 90 years old! Her granddaughter was a member of the Israeli Knesset. When the ceremony began, we heard from Nefesh B’Nefesh founders, a Knesset member, and even Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Ron Prosor.

After the ceremony, we went through security and then waited to board the plane. I met some of the people who would be in my Hebrew class, and immediately felt relieved. We talked about how it didn’t feel real yet, and we wondered when it would finally sink in that we were moving to Israel.

On the plane, everyone was buzzing. After takeoff, we walked around the plane, meeting one another, asking each other where we were from originally, where we were headed to in Israel, and what our plans were upon arrival. It was like this the entire flight, and I’ve never stood and talked so much on a flight before! It’s normal to make polite small talk with your seat neighbor; but this time, everyone was genuinely interested in each other’s lives and plans, because we were united by our choice to move to Israel. Because that choice is so unique, it bred quite a compelling group. Many immigrants moved with their young children; some moved after marrying an Israeli, and others during a transition in life—after high school, college, or even divorce. One of the most amazing moments was a surprise during the first meal on the flight. Tucked into each meal was a special note wishing each oleh (new immigrant) happiness and success in Israel. Leave it to El Al to remind me of my Jewish mother who used to leave little notes in my school lunchbox.

When we finally landed in Israel, a sea of cameras captured the moment. Some people kissed the ground. Others cried. We boarded buses that would take us to the arrival ceremony, again with speakers and family and friends waiting for us. As the bus approached the ceremony, we heard loud music and cheering from all the people greeting us. They formed a human passageway through which the new immigrants would walk—a tunnel of Israeli soldiers. As I started moving through the tunnel of greeters, each one cheering and wishing me “mazel tov,” I immediately spotted my parents and grandma, who were front and center, waving Israeli flags. I made a beeline to them, seeing my mom’s red face from crying and laughing at the same time, my grandma tearing up, and my dad’s face that read both happiness for me, and extreme sadness that I was leaving home. Making peace between my emotions and their pride tinged with conflict made for an intense moment. My body shook as I hugged them tighter than ever before. After we greeted each other and hugged some more, they gave me the go-ahead to continue in the tunnel of people, toward the ceremony.

I want to stress this moment, because it might have been the most intense moment of my life. It’s a little cheesy, but bear with me, because I mean every word of it. I parted from my parents’ arms (albeit briefly) to be greeted by Israelis whom I did not know, but were cheering for me. This, for me, represented the essence of passage from the comfort of my parents’ arms into a world of the unknown. Even though the pain of saying goodbye to my loved ones (even just for a minute) was heart-wrenching, it was my choice to make aliyah. Unlike many Jews before me who sought refuge in Israel because they’d been exiled from their homes, my fellow travelers and I are here by choice, and I am a privileged and proud beneficiary of this reality.

Eliana Rudee

As I made my way through the rest of the greeters, each soldier and Israeli in line looked directly into my eyes, greeting me more genuinely than I’ve ever been greeted before. The way they congratulated me was as if they were looking through my eyes, directly into my soul. That pushed my already emotional experience over the edge, and I immediately began to joyfully laugh as I burst out in tears at the exact same time. The result was the grandest of the ugly-cries I’ve ever experienced.

Since emerging from the end of the human tunnel, the bitterness of goodbyes and the sublime sweetness of the hellos have been etched into my deepest being, and I now have a feeling that this bittersweetness will become a theme of my aliyah journey to come.

L’hitraot, until next week,

Israel Girl

Eliana Rudee is a fellow with the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought and the author of the new “Aliyah Annotated” column for JNS.org. She is a graduate of Scripps College, where she studied International Relations and Jewish Studies. She was published in USA Today and Forbes after writing about her experiences in Israel last summer. Follow her aliyah column at JNS.org and on Facebook.

The 91st installment of Harvey Rachlin's new comic strip, "The Menschkins." Click here for more JNS.org coverage on Jewish arts.

Credit: Harvey Rachlin and Steven Duquette.

]]>For Bernie Sanders, Jewish presidential contender, is Israel on the radar?IsraelFeaturesNewsU.S.Sean Savage/JNS.orgTue, 21 Jul 2015 17:32:00 +0000http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/7/19/for-bernie-sanders-jewish-presidential-contender-is-israel-on-the-radar5126bbb4e4b08c2e6d1cb6e4:513b781be4b0911897d68e50:55ac20e3e4b0c6a4faca8d0aHe’s a Jew from Brooklyn. He’s running for president. But is Israel on his
radar? Once considered a long shot for the Democratic presidential
nomination, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has gained significant
momentum in recent weeks. Though he grew up in a Jewish-heavy area and
spent time on an Israeli kibbutz after he graduated from college, Israel
has taken a backseat on Sanders’s Congressional agenda to issues such as
income inequality, challenging Wall Street, and raising the minimum wage.
At the same time, the senator’s progressive political base harbors
increasingly negative attitudes about the Jewish state. What would that
mean for a Sanders presidency? “Even if Sanders is relatively quiet on
Israel, there’s a good chance that his leftist supporters are more
critical,” said Tevi Troy, who served as White House liaison to the Jewish
community under president George W. Bush.

Click photo to download. Caption: In February 2015, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) delivers an address on how to spur the American economy during an event hosted by the Brookings Institution. Credit: Paul Morigi Photography/Brookings Institution via Flickr.com.

By Sean Savage/JNS.org

He’s a Jew from Brooklyn. He’s running for president. But is Israel on his radar?

Once considered a long shot for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has gained significant momentum in recent weeks. He now trails the presumptive nominee—former secretary of state Hillary Clinton—by only eight percentage points, according to a CNN/WMUR poll released in June.

Sanders had a bar mitzvah and was raised in a “large Jewish community full of striving middle class Jews who wanted to get up through the education system,” said Alan Abbey, currently director of Internet and media for the Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman Institute but formerly a political reporter for the Burlington Free Press in the early 1980s, when Sanders was first elected mayor of Vermont’s largest city. Abbey described Sanders as a “frumpy” politician who was “really able to connect with people and capture their imaginations.”

Abbey’s parents both attended Brooklyn’s James Madison High School, a New York City public school with a largely Jewish student body, around the same time that Sanders did.

“These were working class assimilated Jewish-Americans, and that culture is very deep in his bones,” Abbey told JNS.org regarding Sanders’s upbringing.

Sanders also spent time on an Israeli kibbutz following his graduation from the University of Chicago in the 1960s. Yet in Congress, Israel has been far from the forefront of his agenda, taking a backseat to issues like income inequality, challenging Wall Street, and raising the minimum wage. In the process, Sanders has become someone many consider the darling of the American political left.

“Sanders has been relatively quiet as a senator on Israel issues,” Tevi Troy, who served as the White House liaison to the Jewish community under president George W. Bush, told JNS.org. “Compared to Hillary Clinton, Sanders has been consistent in his role as a backbencher on Israel, while Hillary has gone back and forth a bit.”

Since being elected to the House of Representatives in 1990, Sanders has been the only openly socialist member of either body of Congress.

“I admire his courage. Most people who come from that part of the political spectrum run like hell from the word ‘socialist.’ He is very out front about it,” said Joshua Muravchik, who served as national chairman of the Young People’s Socialist League from 1968-73 but now leans conservative and is a faculty member at The Institute of World Politics.

On his campaign website, Sanders lists “income and wealth inequality, getting big money out of politics, and climate change and the environment” as his top issues, with no mention of foreign policy or Israel. But as a high-profile progressive, he “comes from a part of the ideological spectrum that has become extremely hostile to Israel,” noted Muravchik, author of the 2014 book “Making David Into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel.”

“Even if Sanders is relatively quiet on Israel, there’s a good chance that his leftist supporters are more critical,” echoed Troy.

At the same time, while Sanders has kept his distance from his Jewish identity over the course of his career, he has not been able to completely escape it. Abbey said Sanders faced some anti-Semitism during his campaign for mayor of Burlington in 1981.

“When Bernie was gaining steam in the local political campaign, blatant anti-Semitism bubbled up as a tool to try and discredit him,” said Abbey. “They would use phrases like ‘Bernie is from New York,’ which in some places is code for Jew.”

Click photo to download. Caption: A cartoon on the recent incident in which NPR host Diane Rehm incorrectly stated that Sen. Bernie Sanders has "dual citizenship with Israel. Credit: FeinTooner.

More recently, in an interview on National Public Radio (NPR) in June, host Diane Rehm mentioned that Sanders has “dual citizenship with Israel.” The senator was offended by that false statement.

“No, I do not have dual citizenship with Israel,” he said. “I’m an American. Don’t know where that question came from. I’m an American citizen. I have visited Israel on a couple of occasions.”

In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor following the NPR incident, Sanders said he is “proud to be Jewish” but that he is “not particularly religious.”

On Israel, meanwhile, Sanders’s record is a mixed bag. In particular, last summer’s conflict in Gaza brought to light his complex feelings on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Sanders was one of 21 of 100 U.S. senators not to sign on as a co-sponsor to Senate Resolution 498, which expressed support for Israel “as it defends itself against unprovoked rocket attack from Hamas.”

But during a town hall meeting last August in Cabot, Vt., when Sanders was verbally attacked by pro-Palestinian activists who yelled expletives at him for condemning Hamas for firing rockets at Israeli civilians, Sanders responded to the hecklers with pro-Israel comments.

“You have a situation where Hamas is sending missiles into Israel… and you know where some of those missiles are coming from? They’re coming from populated areas,” Sanders said. “Hamas is very clear. Their view is that Israel should not have a right to exist.”

After the activists replied to him, “Bullshit, F**k Israel,” Sanders went on to explain that there are more pressing issues in the Middle East, such as the Islamic State terror group, which he condemned for attempting to turn parts of Iraq and Syria into a “7th Century caliphate” that is suppressing women’s rights.

During the same meeting, however, Sanders described Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza as an “overreaction.”

Sanders has also been outspoken in his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the recent NPR interview with Rehm, he said he is “not a great fan of Netanyahu.” He was also the first senator to announce that he would boycott Netanyahu’s much-debated speech to Congress in March. Sanders called the speech “opportunistic” and said he thought Netanyahu was using it as part of his campaign for re-election in Israel.

“I think that [Sanders] may try to straddle the issue [of Israel], but the base that he is trying to appeal to has gone overwhelmingly to the anti-Israel camp,” Muravchik told JNS.org.

That same base, however, has been at odds with Sanders on other issues. Many on the left slammed him for siding with the National Rifle Association in his backing of a law that blocked families who lost children to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting from winning a lawsuit against gun manufacturers.

Abbey believes Sanders’s willingness to go against liberals on certain issues counters a fundamental misunderstanding of what type of “progressive” the Vermont senator really is.

“It is interesting to look at his relationship with the left,” Abbey said. “Sanders is an old left-wing politician, more akin to a 1930s blue collar socialist working-class type.”

For example, Abbey said, “When he was mayor of Burlington, anti-war protesters were pressuring General Electric, which owned a factory that made machine guns, to shut down. Bernie had a lot of pressure on him, but when it came to supporting labor union workers who would lose their jobs versus the pie in the sky anti-war leftists, Bernie sided with the workers.”

When it comes to Israel, then, would a Sanders presidency resist the increasingly hostile views of his leftist base, or would he conform? A recent study by pollster Frank Luntz found that nearly half of U.S. Democrats—47 percent—believe Israel is a “racist” country, while an additional 76 percent of Democrats agree that Israel has “too much influence” over U.S. foreign policy.

The historical roots of Sanders’s ideology are also a cause for concern, according to Muravchik.

“Sanders’s form of socialism in the 1960s and 70s is to the left of Norman Thomas (a former socialist leader in the 1930s who unsuccessfully ran for president six times), and he was more Marxist than Thomas ever was,” Muravchik said.

“That is a place on the ideological spectrum that is very warm to America and Israel’s enemies,” he added.

Abbey believes that Sanders would continue many of the same policies as President Barack Obama on Israel and the Middle East. Obama and Netanyahu have had a rocky relationship, particularly regarding their disagreements on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program. Nevertheless, Abbey feels that due to his Jewish upbringing and the time he spent in Israel, Sanders as president would bring a unique understanding about the Jewish state.

“I think there would be a piece of Bernie that would understand Israel and get the Israeli mentality more than Obama has and even Hillary Clinton would, despite her close contacts with Israel and American Jews over the last few decades,” Abbey said.

“Bibi (Netanyahu) and Bernie would certainly disagree on many issues, but they would do it from a place of deep understanding and respect,” he said.